Explore Yoga – Youth Summer Workshop 2013

BY: Vedant Thyagaraj

July 1st, 2013

Yoga Bharati conducted a workshop for teenagers and college students, called “Explore Yoga,” from June 17 to June 27, 2013. The goal of this workshop was to give the youth participants exposure to not only the physical side of yoga practice but also its holistic nature and a glimpse of the evolution of yoga in America and the extent of its adoption and industry. . More than 20 teens, many with minimal exposure to yoga, showed up every day during the two-week workshop  to learn about yoga and its application to their own lives.

Each day the workshop started off with a yoga class that lasted between 60 to 75 minutes. Each yoga class had a specific theme; Surya Namaskaras, Pranayama, Dynamic Practices, Meditative Postures, and Advanced Asanas were just a few of the many that were emphasized. Yoga Bharati’s youth faculty conducted the sessions under the leadership of Savitha Nanjangud, the Youth Program Director. In a typical Yoga Bharati style, the teachers conducted yoga classes beginning with Shanti Mantra, breathing and loosening exercises followed by 4-5 asanas each day, learning about the benefits, limitations, and key awareness points of each one. Finally the participants participated in a guided relaxation (DRT) and Pranayama. After the yoga session, the participants enjoyed a snack break, which was considered as one of the highlights since they got to socialize during this time. The latter half of the session each day was an informative session that covered the impact of yoga on many different fields of study. On the first day, the participants got the overview of yoga’s history in the US, ranging from Swami Vivekananda to modern yogic styles of Iyengar and Bikram and the trends in the yoga industry. Yogic concepts such as Happiness, the five Koshas, the four streams of yoga, and the eight branches of ashtanga yoga were also introduced.

On the second day, the participants learned about yoga research in the U.S. and discussed topics such as the growing number of published yoga papers in recent years, different university-level projects/courses, different studies being conducted, and many stalwarts in the mind-body medicine field, to name a few. The next day, the participants learned the concepts of Suryanamaskar (Sun Salutations) practice and the day after that, they further explored theconcepts of Yama and Niyama. The participants were then encouraged to pick a Yama or a Niayama of their liking and practice it until the end of the workshop. On the Friday of June 21st, Reverend Elena from the Center For Spiritual Enlightenment (CSE) talked to the participants about meditation. The participants enjoyed artistic activities planned for them, in order to illustrate the concepts of meditation.

On Sunday June 22nd, the participants took a trip to CSE in downtown San Jose. They toured the Wisdom, Compassion, and Grace buildings and the main Temple, and also saw different meditation and yoga rooms as well as areas where services were held. They also had to opportunity to go to the teenage den, where they socialized and played pool and table tennis. The group was then led to the main temple to join the adults in a distinct service. Sunday was a special Gratitude for Teachers’ Worship and Yogacharya Ellen Grace O’Brien (founder minister of CSE) gave a sermon, which mentioned the significance of the summer solstice and super moon and their metaphorical implications. The field trip concluded with a wholesome vegetarian lunch.

The second week flew by even quicker than the first. On Monday, June 25th, Dr. Prasad Kaipa gave a talk on Yoga and Leadership with Swami Vivekananda serving as the prime example. He talked about the qualities of a leader, Swamiji’s burning curiosity and how when we develop and maintain curiosity about a subject matter that interests us, we automatically become leaders in that area. He also mentioned that we should keep both our cultures and not forget either of our cultural identities. However, most of the participants said that the next day’s presentation on Ayurveda was their favorite out of all the informative sessions.

In the following day, four presenters from Vedika Global explained Ayurveda to the participants. They talked about the five elements (Pancha maha bhoota) that constitute everything in nature including human bodies and the Gunas or qualities that can be used to describe something. They then explained the various aspects of the Doshas such as Vata, Pitta, and Kapha, relating them to the nature of animals. The highlight of the session was the food. The participants sampled six types of Ayurvedic tastes (shadrasas) – sugar, rock salt, lemon, cocoa bean (bitter), raw banana (astringent) and chili (hot). The participants also watched a cooking demonstration of how to make rose lassi (rose flavored buttermilk) using actual rose petals. After watching the process, they each got to taste some of the delicious lassi.

On the second to last day, the participants played a fun game of jeopardy, where they reviewed all the concepts they had learnt since the beginning of the workshop. The participants had a blast and all of them actively participated. They then were given time to prepare a small skit for the final day’s presentation. The workshop concluded on June 27th with a yoga class for the participants as well as one for their parents. After that, the participants had a chance to present their experiences with Yamas and Niyamas they had practiced for the past week. The students then performed skits in their groups. One group performed a skit in which they acted as an animal from the jungle and did the asana corresponding to that animal. Another covered many topics including asanas, pranayama, Ayurveda, etc. in their spoof of Pokemon, “Yogamon.” A third team performed a yoga rap accompanied by a succession of asanas, and the final team did a mini yoga class, which included various Asanas and a deep relaxation.

Although the participants initially were very reserved and reluctant to talk, by the end of the workshop, they were bursting with energy, “My mom wanted me to do this. I was not very keen on doing it,” said one student in regards to his enrollment. However, after participation in the workshop, he said, “it was an amazing experience.”

There was an overwhelming and enthusiastic response for Explore Yoga this year by the participants and parents alike. At Yoga Bharati, we hope this made a difference in the lives of the participants, and gave them the experience of the benefits of this wonderful science of holistic health. We also hope this will motivate them to take up the regular practice of yoga and spread it to their own generation.

YIC 2013 Concluding Program

YIC 2013 Concludes – addressed by Dr. B. M. Hegde

June 30, 2013

The 2013 batch of Yoga Instruction Certification (YIC) course conducted by Yoga Bharati concluded on Sunday, June 30th. The closing ceremonies were presided over by eminent scientist, Dr.B.M Hegde.

Dr. Hegde is an accomplished medical scientist, author, academician and also a great yogi honored with a Padma Bhushan, one of India’s highest civilian awards. In his deeply thought provoking talk, Dr Hegde touched upon a number of subjects related to yoga, human body and the science of healing.

The ceremony was well attended by the faculty, students and their families. Several students and faculty shared their experiences about their 3 month long journey immersing into the various aspects of the ancient science of yoga.

Yoga Instructor Certification course is conducted in the bay area by Yoga Bharati every year. Several eminent faculties, some visiting from India, guide the students about topics related to yoga as part of the course.

In year 2013 the course was held from April 6th to June 30th. It was attended by 30 students, 8 of them were youth between the ages of 13 and 20.

Presidents Challenge Using Yoga - Report

June 27, 2013

Yoga Bharati is conducting an observational study to understand and establish the importance of yoga practice amongst children in improving fitness, focus and attention. The study is being conducted as a part of the President’s fitness challenge.

The President’s Challenge is a program introduced by the President’s Council on Physical Fitness and Sports and it is “for people who want to make physical activity and healthy eating part of their everyday lives”. The Council recently announced PALA (Presidential Active Lifestyle Award) to promote physical activity and good nutrition. This is a 6-week program to put the participants on the path of health. Yoga has been identified as one of the recommended activities under the 6-week program.

The purpose of the workshop and study is to show that regular practice of yoga in healthy children helps improve the fitness parameters as stated on the President’s Fitness Challenge.

Yoga Bharati approached this challenge by announcing yoga workshops for children. More than 130 students between the ages 7 to 12 years are participating in free yoga classes in 8 centers. Yoga Bharati is offering close to $10,000 worth of free classes this summer in implementing President’s challenge. Children are attending yoga classes at least 3 times a week. On the other 2 days, they follow the guidelines of the Presidents Challenge for youth and practice yoga and other physical activity for 60 minutes a day making it a total of 5 days a week. Kids follow 3 weeks of guided yoga practice followed by a home practice schedule to continue with President’s challenge protocol for 3 more weeks. Fitness assessments are being done before the practice, after 3 weeks and after 6 weeks. The students are required to maintain a daily log of their activities and diet.

Yoga workshops are conducted and coordinated by the youth aged 14-21, who are yoga teachers of Yoga Bharati. These youth are responsible for teaching yoga, gathering the assessment parameters and following up with the participants to maintain a daily log that will provide data points for compliance with study parameters. The youth will synthesize and present the data analysis report at the end of the summer. This is a unique opportunity for youth volunteers for building leadership skills and it will also give them valuable experience. For younger kids, the youth act as a role model in developing health awareness.

“Yoga is fun” says Nisha whereas Josh says he loves Sun Salutations. Rakesh says “He likes yogic games”. The kids are enjoying summer with yoga!

Yoga Bharati hopes the summer workshops help in raising the awareness of yoga for children in the community.

CSE Kriya Yoga Congress Report

Mar 11th 2013

Yoga Bharati, Bay Area members attended Kriya Yoga Congress organized by Center for Spiritual Enlightment (CSE) in Holiday Inn, San Jose on March 8-10th 2013. Center for Spiritual Enlightment is a San Jose based organization that carries the lineage of Babaji, Lahari Mahashaya, Sri.Yukteshwar and Paramahamsa Yogananda. Representatives of six organizations were invited as special guests for their banquet dinner. Among them were: Br Prabodh Chaitanya and Sri Rao of Chinmaya Mission, Swami Prasannatmananda of Vedanta Society, Berkeley, Tanvi and Mihir Meghani of Hindu American Foundation (HAF) and Ashwini and Anil Surpur from Yoga Bharati and Rev. Masao Tsuruta of Seicho No Ie, the Truth of Life movement who translated the books of Mr.Roy Eugene Davis into Japanese. Yoga Bharati offered greetings to CSE and to Mr. Roy Eugene Davis, Minister of Center for Spiritual Awareness, Pheonix and the direct disciple of Paramahamsa Yogananada on his 82nd Birthday.

The detailed report follows.

Yoga Bharati members attended sessions on all three days and also their Sunday Services where they celebrated Maha Shiva Ratri and sungs chantings on Shiva.

The Meditation workshop by Mr. Roy Eugene Davis on Friday started with a small silence meditation followed by Mr. Davis’s lecture on the fundamentals of meditation derived from Patanjali Yoga Sutras. He also talked about his experiences with his master Paramahamsa Yogananda and his method of teaching, his wisdom, etc. Mr. Davis being an avid meditator and the direct disciple of Paramahamsa Yogananada, has immense knowledge on vedantic concepts, especially Patanjali Yoga sutras and he gave a beautiful account of his own meditation experience covering his master Yogananada’s teachings. His session was full of humor and we enjoyed it.

Ayurveda – This was a session by Cythia Ambika Copple of Mount Madonna Center. She covered the basis of Ayurvedic concepts – Vata, Pitta and Kapha. She gave a practical session where she gave a questionnaire and asked the audience to answer them and discuss with their neighbors about their body type.

Phil Goldberg expounded on how Indian Spirituality influenced the west. Many of Yoga Bharati members have read his book American Veda, which is a compendium of all the wonderful yogis who visited from India, influencing the culture of America. In the evening session, Dr. Christopher Chapple talked eloquently about Patanjali Yoga Sutras covering many concepts of yoga. His amazing depth of knowledge on the subject was evident from his lecture.

On Saturday, we attended the devotional session by Swami Nirvanananda and the entire audience was enthralled by the wonderful chantings of OM Namah Shivaya, and other devotional chantings. This was followed by Meditaton workshop by Mr. Roy Euegne Davis who covered some more concepts and his lineage and the master’s wisdom.

Banquet dinner: This was a perfectly organized and flawlessly executed event and we were in the most joyous and ecstasy state – time and again in the program. The Banquet was well attended by 500 to 600 people from CSE and other orgs.

The program began with the chanting of OM and prayer followed by a salad appetizer. The beautiful poem read by Patricia (Kavita) sung the glory of the Vedantic wisdom of her master lineage – Babji, Lahari Mahashaya, Sri Yukteshwar, Paramahamsa Yogananda and the current successor – Mr. Roy Eugene Davis …

White Birds fly over the river Ganges, At Sunrise, dolphins ride the waters, Maharaj Babji appears on the illumined path…. Walks along the beach at the merging of the rivers…..calls for the holy sounds of OM to form the holy science of divine oneness; place the holy text on the spotless table of your mind…. the tinkling of the cowbells….the lotus blossom that stands honorable above the mud…one day the child of your heart will arrive…. Paramahamsa – the supreme white swan across the seas….Roy Eugene Davis – the boy rides across the magnetic fields of his country towards his master and steps into his place in the holy lineage….offer nourishment for all who want to enter the center of their spiritual awareness….. Remember the forgotten language of the original sound – the pure vibration of OM that contains all breath, the word that contains all words…. articulate the ancient and profound words – Do what you know you should do.

The band team of CSE sang wonderful songs that reflected the vedantic views, the advaita concepts, the song that were pure manifestations of love and bhakti – sung in acapella fashion, in the chorus, in a festive style and in the slow and easy flowing bhakti style. The audience was in a pure bliss and multiple standing ovations were given to the team.

This was followed by dinner and then a session of greetings by various friendly organizations. All the delegates gave wishes to CSE and their good work. They specially wished Roy Eugene Davis on his Birthday. Rev. O’Brian gifted a gold plated Shri Yantra to Mr.Davis. It was a beautiful piece of art that everyone got to see and enjoy.

Below is YB’s greeting message given on behalf of Yoga Bharati.

On behalf of Yoga Bharati and Sri N.V. Raghuram, Spiritual founder and Chairman of Yoga Bharati, Our special greetings on the mahasamadhi anniversaries of Paramahansa Yogananda, Sri Yukteswar and the 82nd birth anniversary of Mr.Roy Eugene Davis – the direct disciple of Paramahamsa Yogananda.

It is indeed a wonderful occasion to celebrate the message of yoga that has inspired millions of Americans, especially when we are also celebrating Swami Vivekananda’s 150th birth anniversary – the man who brought yoga to the west.

We commend Mr. Davis for his dedication to yoga for more than 50 years. Our special wishes to the Center for Spiritual Enlightenment and Center for Spiritual Awareness who have been tirelessly working to spread global health and peace through yoga.

Surya Namaskar Study Pilot Initiative

Suryanamaskar Yajna 2013 – Pilot Research Initiative

Yoga Bharati conducts Suryanamaskar Yajna every year from New Year to Ratha Saptami – usually for a duration of 6 weeks and this year, we are conducting research to showcase the benefits of Suryanamaskar. We conducted an informal pilot study on the effects of Surya Namaskar practice for 6 weeks.

Goals and Objectives

The main goal of Suryanamaskar Yagna is Yoga Awareness and spreading the wealth of yoga and Surynamaskar in the community. In addition:

• Publish population and cohort studies towards bringing greater awareness about health benefits of yoga to the community.
• Build interest in the community about scientific approach to ancient sciences and to look at yoga in a new light
• Contribute in creating yoga as an evidence-based science so that yoga will be looked up as a preventative and complementary health care by governments and healthcare industry.

STUDY DETAILS

What is the Study?
Simple: You will begin Suryanamaskars on Jan 1st and end on Feb 17th and practice everyday a pre-determined set of Suryanamaskars (10 count)

Volunteers who are committed to yoga and health and would like to showcase the benefits to the community will be a part of this group. We will do some tests and have you answer some questionnaire in the beginning(before Jan 1st) and at the end of the yagna (after Feb 17th). You will enter daily log of your diet and your activity including the number of Suryanamaskar cycles you performed that day. No special diet will be recommended. Your physical activity will consist of a pre-determined set of Suryanamaskar performed in a specified time period.

You will practice a pre-determined set of Suryanamaskar followed by relaxation in loosened standing pose until the breat and heart rate comes to normal. This should be followed by 2 mins of Shavasana (Supine Resting Pose). The style of Suryanamaskar is fixed for the study. Please note that you need to strictly adhere to this style for us to be able to demonstrate the benefits in a scientific manner. Follow the below two links to find out the instructions and youtube video to practice along.
Instructions (Yoga Bharati):

Note: Please note that if you are new to Suryanamaskar practice, Yoga Bharati will be happy to teach you. Please contact us and we will be able to point you to the classes/workshops near your area.

Broad Idea about the tests conducted:
Parameters to be collected at the beginning and end. All data is kept confidential.
Teachers or Physical Therapists would collect the parameters. Alternatively you could ask your partners/family/friends to help with tests. We will explain and help you with the tests and questionnaire.

• • Height, Weight, BMI, Waist, Hip, Mid-arm, Mid-thigh, Mid-Calf circumference
  • Breath Holding Time, Bhramari Time & Respiratory Rate. Also Pulse rate & Blood Pressure for your ownpersonal assessment
  • Questionnaire to measure your Rajas/Tamas/Satva Score and Doshas (Vata, Pitta, Kapha) , SF 36 questionnaire, personality tests, etc
  • Other parameters – Sugar if diabetic, thyroid levels if they have thyroid condition etc.

Swami Vivekananda 150th Birth Anniversary – Panel Discussion

Yoga Bharati members attended the150th anniversary of the birth of Swami Vivekananda organized by San Francisco Vedanta Society. It was a daylong unique free event at the Palace of Fine Arts Theater, San Francisco, on Saturday, February 23, 2013

A lively panel discussion about “Yoga and the American Quest for Freedom” was conducted in the morning. The panel was hosted by Michael Krasny (Host of KQED’s Forum). Other speakers were – Jacob Needleman (Professor of Philosophy, San Francisco State University), Ann Louise Bardach (Journalist, Writer-at-Large for Newsweek Global/The Daily Beast, currently writing a book about Swami Vivekananda) and Swami Tattwamayananda (Vedic Scholar and Teacher).  In the afternoon was Freedom: The Song of the Soul ~ A Multimedia Presentation covering the fascinating and inspiring life and teachings of Swami Vivekananda in a captivating presentation, weaving together his words, photos and live music.  Prof Linda Hess explained Kabir’s philosophy and provided samples of his music to the audience.

Michael Krasny  (host and introductory talk)

Quest for freedom is integral to American thinking. The landscape of psychology has gone through dramatic changes to put it mildly and a lot of it is due to not just Vivekaanda but also due to the influence of yoga. Thanks to Vivekananda –  assimilation, absorption and acceptance of many of the teachings of the East that are with us now. Vivekananda was a global figure, addressed parliament of world religions, a figure that enabled American freedom in the sense of religion to a much greater degree. America is the nation that has always wanted to break the shackles of religious oppression. The immigrants came here to find religious freedom. We can take on the pride that religious freedom has taken on a multi-dimensional sphere of influence that can’t be denied. When you are practicing yoga and when you see all those young people who say they are spiritual, but not religious or when you see those who are looking for transcendence without knowing where that quest will lead them, lot of it seems to be to confabulate in ways that it points to the east and to the influence of yoga Spirituality is a way of finding out truth; in fact, much of what yoga is, in aesthetic sense and in intellectual sense is the search of truth.

Yoga is something we use to keep us in shape, and many of us use yoga to combine holistic approach to life; of feeling the greater sense of being centered. What fascinates me in terms of psychology is the expansion of consciousness and the expansion of thought that has been not be so coincidental and certainly been the output under the influence of the East and particularly under the influence of figures of Vivekananda. I also want to talk about the search and transcendence as often involving in the search for selflessness and service. This also is rooted in teachings of the yogis and yoga ideals. I have been teaching at the Esslin institute for many years now. The idea of yoga connected with liberation is simply customary in places like Esslin. The ideals of many people who say we want to do something to de-emphasize the self, to practice compassion, that helps the planet, something that ameliorate the suffering; in many ways these are related to the higher ideals of the yogis. Yoga is a practice of not only body but mind and spirit. The ideal of bringing the body, mind and spirit together regardless of the religion is something connected to the ancient yogis. You can be an agnostic or atheist and still be looking for this path, looking for something transcendent and something that gives life meaning and it is all tied to the ancient wisdom of yogis. The ideal of being in the quest of truth has always been a part of American freedom and has become a wedding between East and West. Although yoga as taught here in the West is different from what is taught in the East, so much has been absorbed, assimilated and accepted that  we can call it the wisdom of the hear. This is a psychology that goes with the wisdom of the heart; the psychology that releases us from the bondage of the Self from the bondage of oppression, that has to do with finding a calling.

The idea of mindfulness, the idea of an alliance to freedom is yoga; it teaches the value of breath as a gift of life, the global reach of this wisdom is what we see in the heterogeneous audience here. Yoga provides a kind of freedom; meditation as a practice has shown to be valuable in breaking addictions, coming out of jail and inner freedom. Yoga frees you, not necessarily from the disease or from afflictions, but we certainly know now that it helps a great degree with improving the immune system and with health and there can be freedom from suffering; Immuno-psychologist Mario Martinez who works with centenarians said there is definitely a relation between joy and living a long life even more than you would imagine the links are to the food you eat or the kind of genetics you have. Joy is central to this whole schema. This means a great deal in terms of how long you live and what kind of life you live. The whole counterculture movement has become wedded to yogi teachings and they are in essence the teachings about liberation, it seems to me the greater desire in making this a better planet is to free ourselves from the kind of bondage we may be in. With modern technology, we are heading towards greater freedom in so many ways that we cannot imagine, but the kind of freedom we are going to enjoy still goes back to the ancient yogis.

What is the meaning of freedom in America?

– Talk by Dr. Needleman

This is an interesting opportunity to understand or revisit a question that arises in many of our minds. What is the meaning of freedom in America?

I once gave a talk in Boston on the birthday of Ralph Waldo Emerson and spoke about the extraordinary stand that a small group of farmers led against the military and drive them away. This led me toward the question of freedom, what America is all about. I later met with the group of people afterwards, and I asked them, and in doing so, I asked myself, what do you mean when you say freedom? Most of them were tongue-tied.

What comes to mind instantly is what is this freedom from? From external compulsions, the journey and constriction of one’s life…but what is this freedom for? What are we supposed to do with our freedom, once we have liberated ourselves from the external tyranny and compulsions? This touches on very deep questions of the human mind and soul.

If one takes the briefest of classes of the teachings and writings of Swami Vivekananda, we will see that this is a very deep question of the human heart, which is unanswerable. It is answerable really, but perhaps not in the state of consciousness we ask it in.

There are these questions…what does this freedom mean, what is it for?  What does it even mean beyond being able to do what we want with our desires and our pleasures, or accidental inclinations or conditioned habits and behavior or is there a deeper meaning of freedom that we are speaking about?

The first time I taught the course on the philosophy of Ralph Waldo Emerson, I was a bit concerned. Emerson was deeply influenced by the philosophy of the Bhagawad Gita and Indian philosophy. He is a great writer in American literature and I was concerned about the fact that my students may not connect with the subtlety of the meaning in his writings. I was concerned that the students may not be able to assimilate the meaning of what Swami Vivekananda calls the soul or the Brahma or Aatman in us all that is intrinsically the divine force, our true identity. Once, Swami Ramakrishna was asked by Swami Vivekananada – “why are you bowing to me?” To this, Ramakrishna replied, “I am not bowing to you, I am bowing to the God within you.” This is a true identity within us. This is the central idea of Indian philosophy, but of course, it is reflected in most great spiritual traditions in the world.

All Emerson’s essays deal with aspects of human life – money, travel, literature, and the meaning of truth or wealth, which leads us, back to our initial quest for freedom. Everything led back to this essential freedom that presents the idea of the divine within us – our true identity, which is what we truly are, underneath the surface of our conditioned self. Our identification with superficial self brings us all the suffering that we have. When we read all those articles the students were deeply touched and thrilled. When I asked them why? –  Most said different things except one who said it brought him hope. Why did it bring him hope? …. because Emerson was not saying good things were going to happen. The hope was the writings from this great tradition touched them in a part of themselves that they didn’t know they had; or they had and they had forgotten. This metaphysical DNA has a deep need to connect with something greater than ourselves and serving that brings hope. The hope and freedom lies in the very paradox that true human freedom is the freedom to obey something deeper within ourselves.

If we look at freedom, as it is today – the ideas of democracy or other social and political policies, the idea of equality that all men are created equal has a spiritual meaning. It does not mean we are all entitled to the same station in life or the same material goods. It means under the reality of God (within) we are all equal, which refers to the nature of all human beings.

Jefferson defined freedom as the hostility towards all tyranny of the mind or anything that oppresses the mind or our power of understanding. Our consciousness, which is the source of our true individuality, brings us the capacity of a higher understanding of ourselves. Freedom is the contact with this higher capacity within us, which is not enslaved to random accidental thoughts, conditions, emotional fears, and desires that pull us around like a mad monkey. Freedom is an inner quality, the liberty from external compulsions. This freedom can and should be used for the search for the inner freedom, which is the voice of our conscience, that voice which is genuine.

The meaning of freedom in America needs to be refreshed. As a nation it needs to make room for search for conscience individually and also in association with other people. What is most important is to become real human beings both inwards free and divinely free and serve from love, which is higher than oneself. If that is lost we are lost. And that is not yet lost, no matter what the state of our political system.

Swami Vivekananda is a man who made such a tremendous impact genius charm; it is time to bring this element of thought into our culture.

Vivekananda 150 - Celebration Report

Various organizations in the SF Bay area celebrated Swami Vivekananda’s 150th Birth Anniversary on Jan 12th, 2013 and Yoga Bharati was proud to support them. Yoga Bharati children performed a short skit in Samskritam to showcase a few turning points in Swami Vivekananda’s life such as the vision he got while meditating on the Kanyakumari Rock which led him to undertake his journey to the West to deliver his epoch-making speech at Parliament of World religions. The skit was first performed in HSS Cupertino Shakha on the morning of Saturday, January 12th.

In the evening it was performed at the First Unitarian Church of Oakland. It was in this church that Swami Vivekananda delivered his first lecture in the Bay area in 1900. The event was organized by Swami Vivekananda Celebratory Organization under the leadership of Swami Prasannatmananda of Vedanta Society, Berkeley. More than 20 children participated in the two skits with 8 of them dressed up as Vivekananda on stage speaking in fluent Samskritam interspersed by English translation. For all the Yoga Bharati parents, volunteers and children, it was a historic event in a historic place on a historic day for a legendary Hero ! The little Ranganayakis (girls with classical dance mudras) performed symbolic dances to show the action on the stage. At the end of the program, little children of ages 3 to 6 years old came on the stage waving the flags of various countries around the globe with a loud and clear message “Uttishtata, Jagrata, Prapya Varaan Nibodhata! – Arise, Awake, Stop not till the goal is reached”!

Swami Vivekananda is India’s spiritual ambassador to the West. He enriched the religious consciousness of Americans through his teachings of the Vedanta philosophy. In India Vivekananda is regarded as a patriot saint of modern India and his birthday is celebrated as National Youth Day. His mission of East meeting the West is coming to fruition as evidenced by the new wave of yoga and the rapid adoption and application of yogic science in healthcare systems in America today.

Yoga Bharati has been a part of this wonderful movement and recently organized the International Conference Yoga Sangam to commemorate Swamiji’s 150th Birth Anniversary. Yoga Bharati encourages the volunteers of Yoga Bharati to attend and support all the activities related to Swamiji’s 150th birth centenary throughout the year culminating on Sep 11th 2013. That was the day, 120 years ago, Swamiji delivered his historic speech in the Parliament of World religions to a stunning applause. A speech that began with the simple words “Sisters and Brothers of America….”.

We will continue to support various events on Swami Vivekananda through out this year. Below are some of the events we highly recommend everyone to participate and support:

SNY Pilot Research Initiative 2013 – Announcement

Cupertino

Dec 26th 2012
Surya Namaskar Yagna 2013

Yoga Bharati is excited to announce Surya Namaskar Yagna (SNY) – Sun Salutations Marathon 2013 and a pilot Research Initiative in Surya Namaskar this year. The duration of the yagna is a total of 6 weeks, starting January 1st and ending on Feb 17th, the day of ‘Ratha Sapthami’. SNY has been an annual Yoga Bharati event for a few years now, with hundreds of people participating every year and performing more than 100,000 Surya Namaskars. SNY is a marathon where an individual sets a daily goal of Surya Namaskars and starts practicing, gradually increasing the count per day to reach that goal. The idea is to complete as many rounds of Surya Namaskar as possible during the yagna period. The main goal of the yagna is to spread awareness on the benefits of Yoga and Surya Namaskar in the community.

Surya Namaskars or Sun Salutations are performed to give reverence to the internal Sun, the creative force that radiates inside the body, along with the external Sun, which shines outside the body and is the source of all energy. Surya Namaskar is a series of 10 or 12 poses in a seamless flow; synchronized with one’s breath and typically performed at sunrise and sunset every day. It is ideal for people with busy schedules as it provides various benefits packaged as one routine within a small duration of time.

Surya Namaskar is a wonderful energization technique that combines both stimulation and relaxation to bring voluntary control over stress and release responses. It is also an excellent way to get cardiovascular exercise and build endurance with the least chance of injuries to muscles and joints due to the continuous variability of muscle length. Surya Namaskar practice also produces hormonal balance and burns calories to aid in weight management. Regular practice results in regulating and deepening the breath, builds body awareness and brings mindfulness into all our daily activities. In addition there are several psychological and spiritual benefits for true seekers.

Unique Surya Namaskar Pilot Research initiative for 2013
This year Yoga Bharati is launching a pilot Surya Namaskar Research Initiative in conjunction with the Surya Namaskar yagna. Yoga has been studied and practiced for centuries in traditional ways. It was the vision of Swami Vivekananda to apply the scientific research methods of the West to the ancient practices of the East to develop the best of both worlds for the benefit of mankind. Generating statistically convincing data by following rigorous research methodologies is the best way to convince the modern medical community of doctors and therapists and the community at large to adopt yoga for both preventive and curative solutions.

A chosen set of committed volunteers will practice a pre-determined set of Surya Namaskars for 6 weeks per a scientifically developed protocol and record their observations daily. No other changes in diet or physical activities are prescribed. Volunteers will answer a few questionnaires and allow some health parameters to be recorded at the beginning (Jan 1st) and at the end of the research duration (Feb 17th).

The study participants will be diligently tracked by assigned research coordinators who will be trained on all the research methodologies of protocol assignment and parameter collection.

By conducting this research project Yoga Bharati hopes to achieve the following goals

1) Publish population and cohort studies towards bringing greater awareness about health benefits of yoga to the community.
2) Build interest in the community about scientific approach to ancient sciences and to look at yoga in a new light
3) Contribute in creating yoga as an evidence-based science so that yoga will be looked up as a preventative and complementary health care by governments and healthcare industry.

East Meets West - by Dr.H.R.Nagendra – a Report

Cupertino, CA July 31st, 2012

 On Sunday, July 29th, 2012, Yoga Bharati Bay Area Chapter hosted programs towards Pre-Conference Workshop with the theme – EAST MEETS WEST to highlight Swami Vivekananda’s upcoming 150th Birthday. Yoga Bharati’s International Conference Yoga Sangam is also organized to commemorate Swami Vivekananda’s dream of East Meeting West.

Guruji Dr. H.R.Nagendra, the Vice Chancellor of Swami Vivekananda Yoga Research Foundation (VYASA) has worked in making Swami Vivekananda dream of spreading Yoga and its Philosophy to the world by bringing scientific research into yoga and making yoga therapy, an evidence based modality.

Guruji conducted a yoga workshop on Stress Management ((Stress Management for Excessive Tension) in Sunnyvale temple on Sunday July 29th at 7am. This workshop was attended by more than 50 people who were impressed and inspired by the depth of the yoga practice which was not just asanas, but a wholesome practice for the body, mind and soul.

Guruji also conducted a lecture and practice workshop on East Meeting West at India Community Center (ICC), Milpitas. He presented the work of VYASA, its 25 years of research on yoga and its applications in back pain, diabetes, cancer, hypertension, etc. More than 200 research papers are published in various scientific journals. Guruji had a great response to his program. More than 60 people including alumni of Indian Institute of Science (IISc, Bangalore) attended the program. Some people were so inspired that they decided to visit VYASA Bangalore and expressed their interest to dedicate their time volunteering for VYASA and Yoga Bharati.

Guruji also attended a Yoga Sangam Curtain Raiser Dinner with donors, supporters and Community Leaders on July 29th evening

KLOK’s Mahima Creations hosted a talk by Guruji Dr.H.R.Nagendra on their Altu Phaltu show, at the peak hour on the evening of June 29th. 

YIC 2012 Inauguration

Yoga Bharati San Francisco Bay Area Chapter conducted its annual Yoga Teacher Training aka Yoga Instructor Course (YIC) inauguration on Sunday March 25, 2012 in India Community Center (ICC), Milpitas.

About 120 people, which included Yoga Bharati volunteers, the new students for 2012 YIC batch and the graduating students of previous batches assembled with their families for a spirited and fun filled Sunday afternoon at about 2:00 PM PDT.

It was a special occasion indeed as we commence the next batch of YIC for 2012!

The Event was inaugurated by the lamp lighting as is the Indian custom, by the chief guests –Swami Prasannatmananda of Vedanta Society, Berkeley and Acharya Shunya Pratichi Mathur of Vedika Global, Berkeley and Anil Surpur, President of Yoga Bharati, SF Chapter.

A traditional invocation of Lord Ganesha was done by a Bharatanatyam dance – Maha Ganapatim, by the disciples of Guru Vishal Ramani. The audience watched with baited breath as the girls danced in their joyous Mudras. It was a wonderful spiritual ecstasy as they ended their dance with a formation of Ganesha with his trunk, his four hands, and his blessing Mudras, all posed by little girls using their hand and body gestures. It was Yoga in motion.

This was followed by Welcome speech by Anil Surpur. The chief guests were introduced by the MC, Binta Patel, followed by the felicitation of the guests by Savitha Nanjangud and Savita Joshi. The audience then got to enjoy satsang and powerful speeches given by both the chief guests.

Swami Prasannatmananda explained what yoga is (Union or ‘Addition of’, Concentration or Control) and brought about the idea of four streams of yoga namely Bhakti Yoga, Jnana Yoga, Karma Yoga and Raja Yoga. He also spoke about the contributions of Swami Vivekananda to Raja Yoga.

Shunyaji applauded Yoga Bharati for all it’s achievements and the great service done to the community. She advised the outgoing students to take up Karma yoga and continue their passion. She reminded the students that this is just a beginning of spiritual journey. She said each and everyone who is looking for truth has to come to yoga and its philosophy to find it. She congratulated all for taking the right step in the right direction.

Student graduates from 2011 took center stage as they collected their certificates and received blessings from the chief guests, amidst cheers from friends and family.

A wonderful note addressed to the chief guests by Yoga Bharati Chairman Raghuramji was shared by Ashwini with the audience.

Logistics for the upcoming classes were shared by Shailesh Basani, YIC Training Coordinator, with the new entrants and they were requested to communicate without any hesitation for anything they might need, followed by introduction of YIC faculty.

The last 30 minutes were dedicated to the cultural programs. This segment was completely dominated by the kids! Chinmay Surpur and Vedant Thyagarajan performed a Hindustani Jugal Bandhi in Raag Yaman Kalyan that simply resonated in the halls of ICC. Swamiji showered his blessings on all the kids and specially recognized both the singers.

This was followed by a Yoga dance by the children of Yoga Bharati kids classes. The music and choreography was set by Madhavi Jain and Chinmay Surpur. The parents and the audience thoroughly enjoyed the various postures and formations by the children who were totally committed to their practice and gave it their best!

Bhakti Yoga was the topic chosen by three youth. While Ashwin Nimmal spoke on Bhakta Prahlada, Saylee Padgaonkar chose to speak on Meera Bai. Ankita Jain’s passionate speech on Vivekananda energized one and all. She enacted Swami Vivekananda’s speech at the parliament of religions in Chicago in 1893. Her passionate rendering of the speech of Vivekananda brought tears of joy to many in the room.

The event had a beautiful conclusion – Vande Mataram sung by adult volunteers and the kids. The audience joined in and the grand finale wrapped up a great evening of sharing, fun, energy, love, happiness and quest for learning in the most befitting way over a light, hearty Satvik meal!

Annual Report – 2011

Yoga Bharati brings a wealth of knowledge about yoga and its philosophy through Yoga Teacher’s training and its Diploma courses. The courses are brought from Vivekananda Yoga Research Foundation (SVYASA), Bangalore, India. We are now an affiliate center of the Hindu University of America in bringing Diploma in Yoga Wellness to our yoga teachers, a course that focuses on Therapeutic Applications of Yoga.

We are excited about the new yoga wave that Yoga Bharati is creating by bringing holistic yoga with its grand heritage and its depth of philosophy into the western world. With your help and support Yoga Bharati will further increase its pace of progress.

Presently Yoga Bharati has chapters in the following locations:

USA:

• SF Bay Area
• Detroit
•  Los Angeles
•  San Diego
•  Seattle

Outside USA:

•  Istanbul, Turkey
•  Bengaluru, India
•  Canada:
•  Calgary
•  Edmonton
•  Vancouver

Accomplishments
We are proud of the great leap that Yoga Bharati has taken in its mission since its inception in 2002. In its efforts to spread its wings far and wide, Yoga Bharati has taken up various tasks and progressed in many areas. Below is an attempt to highlight some of the achievements

Yoga Alliance (YA) Registration:
We are now a Registered Yoga School (RYS 200) with Yoga Alliance for our Yoga Instructors Course (YICC), a 200 hour course, enabling the teachers to become Registered Yoga Teacher (RYT 200). We also have plans to register for RYS 500. This is great news for the whole organization, as it will put us on the national map of yoga training in USA & elsewhere.

Yoga Classes:

• Public yoga classes have taken a big leap. We have a total of six locations in the Bay Area where free classes are conducted, thanks to all our volunteers. In Sunnyvale alone, we are conducting 15 free classes per week. So a total of 20 classes, with a value worth $4000 given out to the community per week by Yoga Bharati Bay Area chapter alone!
• In Los Angeles, free yoga classes are conducted in four different locations.
• In Detroit chapter, apart from free yoga classes, yoga is also given to Multiple Sclerosis patients on a biweekly basis. Free yoga classes are conducted in San Diego chapter on weekends.

Yoga Teachers Training (YICC) 2011
As with every year, Yoga Bharati conducted YICC 2011, its flagship course. In Bay Area, LA and Detroit chapters, we conducted this course this year.  As with every year, our Chairman and spiritual founder, Shri. N.V.Raghuram was the faculty for Yoga Philosophy Course(YPC) that is a part of YICC.

Partnership and Collaboration:
In Bay Area Chapter, Yoga Bharati worked with other organizations to help build network, spread the awareness and as a reach out program.  We collaborated with Sambodh Society for conducting annual workshops on Meditation, Yoga Philosophy and Vedanta. We provided volunteers for yoga classes at Chinmaya Mission Balavihar programs, at India Community Center (Milpitas, Bay Area) and other locations. We also worked with Samskrita Bharati in providing yoga for their Sanskrit Workshops and with Chinmaya Mission OM run volunteers in conducting yoga class for Marathoners.

Yoga Therapy sessions:
 Bay Area:
Yoga Bharati Bay Area chapter has made a great leap in therapeutic applications of yoga. Yoga classes have been running for the last three years with significant results.  We conduct yoga for kids, yoga for back/neck/shoulder pain, arthritis, hypertension, diabetes, weight loss and stress management, to name a few. This year, we conducted many workshops and presentations on Yoga Therapy. In June 2011, we conducted a workshop on SMET and Yoga Evidence Based Yoga Presentation by Dr. Naveen. Vishweshwaraiah ofFAITHS, who has worked extensively on research in the field of yoga therapy. We conducted Prenatal Yoga workshop in collaboration with Dr. Vidya Mhamunkar and also Yoga and Ayurveda for Expectant Parents in collaboration with Vedika Global, a premier school of Ayurveda in Emeryville, CA. The goal of Yoga Bharati’s yoga classes for ailments is three-fold:

• Help people with their ailments
• Spread the awareness about therapeutic benefits of yoga
• Develop and support research on how yoga can help in achieving positive health for individual and society

 Detroit (MS Society)
Since 2006, Yoga Bharati certified instructor, Ms. Sudha Rao has been devoting two hours on a bi weekly basis to teach yoga to people with Multiple Sclerosis at the MS society in Southfield, Michigan. The MS patients  have noticed a significant improvement in their flexibility and movements.  Ms. Rao intends to conduct a research study on the benefits of Yoga in MS patients in the near future.  She is joined in this effort by Dr Deepa Parikh has been working with the group since the summer of 2011 on a biweekly basis.

Diploma in Yoga Therapy (PGDYT)
The Bay Area chapter successfully conducted the contact program for Diploma in Yoga Therapy (PGDYT), a course for higher studies in yoga and its therapeutic applications. This course is brought in collaboration with SVYASA. The diploma course will be registered with Yoga Alliance as RYT 500 level course. SVYASA’s Arogyadhama (Prashanti – a health center of SVYASA at Bangalore), a premier Yoga Therapy Center provides our students, the required training for practical study of Yoga Therapy.

Apart from the diploma course, we are also conducting certification courses for teachers who can conduct classes for specific ailments such as back pain, diabetes, etc.

Sevathon 2011
On On July 17th, 2011, Yoga Bharati SF Bay Area chapter joined hands with India Community Center to participate in Sevathon 2011.  A free yoga workshop for runners was conducted by Yoga Bharati volunteers. Yoga Bharati was able to collect some donations towards its seva projects.

Satsangs and Workshops:
 SMET Workshop 2011
Yoga Bharati Bay area chapter organized a workshop for doctors and medical practitioners along with interested yoga community in Sunnyvale Hindu Temple on June 18th, 2011.  The workshop was well attended by over 100 people including doctors.This workshop was presented by Shri N.V.Raghuram, the spiritual founder of Yoga Bharati and a faculty member at SVYASA (Swami Vivekananda Yoga Research Foundation), Bengaluru, India, and Dr.Naveen Vishweshwaraih of FAITHS (Foundation for Assessment and Integration of Traditional Health Systems). Both these institutions are working on bringing research papers on the therapeutic effects of yoga. SVYASA has published over 150 papers on yoga applications for various ailments such as diabetes, hypertension, backpain, autism, cancer and many more. The program was extremely well received and the doctors got to understand the research that SVYASA has conducted in yoga and its benefits in addressing various ailments including cancer.

  Yoga Philosophy by Shri N.V.Raghuram

This year, Sri N.V.Raghuram taught the theory part of Yoga Teacher’s Training in Bay Area and Detroit chapters. He also conducted workshops on Pranayama, SMET and gave discourses on Bhagavad Gita and other topics in Bay Area, Detroit, Los Angeles area and Canada. The sessions were well received in all the chapters of the US.

Prof. Sastry Memorial 2011

Once a year, Yoga Bharati Detroit chapter celebrates the life and teachings of Prof. Satyanarayana Sastry in the form of a day- long spiritual workshop.  Prof. Sastry was the mentor of our own beloved guru, Raghuramji.   This year’s topic was the Concept of Fullness. Raghuramji discussed the concepts established in Ishavasya Upanishad.

 Workshop by Swami Bodhananda Saraswati
Bay Area chapter conducted annual meditation programs by Swami Bodhananda Saraswati of Sambodh Society. This year, he conducted workshops on Meditation I (Beginners) and II (Advanced) in Sunnyvale Hindu Temple and Meditation Basics in Fremont. The weekend workshops included Vedanta and Parenting and Gita and Management. The program were well received and well attended.

  Study Groups:
In an attempt towards our own Self Growth and our progress in spirituality, Yoga Bharati conducts study groups in its various chapters for its yoga teachers and volunteers. In Bay Area, regular monthly study groups are conducted where discussions on Bhagavad Gita shlokas, asanas and pranayama techniques, meditation practices, etc are carried out.  Detroit Chapter conducts monthly study groups on Bhagavad Gita and Patanjali Yoga Sutras.

Plans for 2012
Apart from further progress in the above programs, we will be planning the following:
Commemorating 150th Birthday of Swami Vivekananda & 10 years for Yoga Bharati
Yoga Bharati plans to conduct a Conference on Yoga commemorating 150th Birthday of Swami Vivekananda who kindled the spark of East meeting the West. This spark has gathered a huge momentum and yoga is a word of mouth in the west today. Yoga Research is gaining momentum and the world is looking with hopes towards yoga to solve the growing epidemics such as diabetes, heart diseases and cancer. With this conference, we hope to spread awareness of yoga and its depth to wider audience and to connect like minded people and to build the community. Details will be available soon.

Surya Namaskar Yagna (SNY-2011)
  (Sun Salutations Marathon)
Yoga Bharati conducts Suryanamaskar Yagna every year to spread the benefits of Surya Namaskar (SNY) on yoga participants.  The event starts on Jan 1st and ends on Ratha Saptami Day Jan 30th. Details will be announced soon.

Yoga Teachers Training 2012

Yoga Bharati Bay area and LA chapters will be conducting Yoga teachers Training (YICC) during April – June months.

Yoga Bharati – Yoga With a Difference

Yoga Bharati – Yoga With a Difference

While there are a host of yoga studios mushrooming in every street in America these days, there are very few of these studios or organizations that provide yoga for the body, mind and spirit making it a wholesome and holistic practice. People perform strenuous acrobatic poses, toning the muscles, sweating and stretching in the name of yoga. Very few of them focus on mental and spiritual aspects of of yoga.

Yoga Bharati’s very foundation of yoga classes is to provide health at five dimensions of human existance (pancha koshas) – the physical, the pranic or life-force level, the emotional, intellectual and spiritual levels. With the technique of stimulation and relaxation and with the focus on building awareness, ours is an integrated approach to yoga geared to be holistic. We bring subtle aspects from the ancient wisdom of Upanishads, Bhagavad Gita and Patanjali Yoga sutras with its stress on Asthanga Yoga. This makes our classes very popular and people who attend our yoga classes are simply awestruck by their simplicity and effectiveness. Our goal is to achieve positive health for individual and society (Vyasthi and Samasti as said in Upanishads) combining the best of East with the best of West as envisioned by Swami Vivekananda.

In the same spirit of combining head, heart and hand in all its activities, Yoga Bharati provides many avenues for our trained teachers to offer community service (sewa) whether it is through providing free yoga classes to the community, connecting the community with various aspects of yoga philosophy or instilling in the younger generation a spark of curiosity in yoga practice and philosophy. There is increasing demand for our teachers training program among high school children to help them handle the stresses of high school and college.

Yoga Therapy with Research (Evidence based Yoga)

Yoga Bharati has made a great leap in therapeutic applications of yoga in association with SVYASA, which has immense background on research in Yoga Therapy. SVYASA has published over 100 research papers that are catalogued in pubmed and are peer reviewed. SVYASA houses 250 bed Yoga Therapy Health center called Arogyadhama. We have been conducting yoga classes for common ailments and special groups such as kids and pregnant women in SF Bay Area for the last three years with significant results. We conduct yoga for kids, prenatal and postnatal yoga, yoga for back/neck/shoulder pain, arthritis, hypertension, diabetes, weight loss and stress management, yoga for infertility, to name a few. The goal of Yoga Bharati’s yoga classes for ailments is three-fold:

Help people with their ailments by giving them regular classes where they learn to relax better and to get relief on their ailments. Touch the hearts of people with the simple and profound yogic concepts so they understand how to manage their condition as well as they become better in their overall personality – physical, mental and spiritual outlook

Develop research so that we practice Evidence based Therapy.

Yoga Teachers with depth of Yoga Foundation

Yoga Bharati conducts Yoga Teachers Training every year for three months as a weekend course. We bring this course from Swami Vivekananda Yoga Research Foundation (SVYASA), a premier yoga university in Bengaluru, India with its focus on yoga research. Our course conforms to the Yoga Alliance RYT200. It is however, different from many other courses because we focus on holistic aspects in our course. We bring the best of yoga masters from India and US and give the most authentic yoga concepts along with scientific explanation of the concepts where needed. Yoga Philosophy is taught by Yogashree N.V.Raghuram of SVYASA and Spiritual founder and Chairman of Yoga Bharati who has more than 20 years experience in teaching Yoga philosophy in over 30 countries all over the world. Yoga Bharati also provides a platform for all the yoga teachers to further enhance their yoga skills and for their self growth by providing year round study groups, discourses by yoga masters, yoga retreats, Suryanamaskar yagna (Sun Salutation Marathon), Stress Management and other such workshops.

Stress Management using Yoga

Yoga Bharati brings Stress Management workshops to various communities. Just to name a few,

Yoga Bharati recently conducted a *free* SMET (Self Management of Excessive Tension, a SVYASA technique) in June 2011 at Sunnyvale Hindu Temple Auditorium for public and the doctors in the Bay Area. More than 100 folks participated in the event and enjoyed the wonderful discourse and SMET practice. This was presented by Shri. N.V.Raghuram of SVYASA and Dr.Naveen of FAITHS, Bengaluru.

• Conducted Stress Management workshop for Foster Parents at the department of Family and Child Services.
• Collaborated with Breathe California to bring Stress Management workshop for Senior Centers in the Bay Area.

Research Awareness for Medical Practitioners

One of the important initiatives of Yoga Bharati is to facilitate collaboration and awareness programs to bring research work on yoga in India to American medical community. Yoga Bharati arranged a Doctors Workshop in Sept 2010 where more than 30 doctors from various fields participated. Dr. Nagarathna, the chief of Medical staff at SVYASA chaired the event and shared the research work on Yoga in Diabetes, Cancer, Autism and many other ailments. A similar workshop was done in June 2011, where Dr. Naveen of FAITHS (Foundation for Assessment and Integration of Traditional Health Systems), Bengaluru, presented enormous data on research in Yoga Therapy. Doctors and research scientists at UCSF appreciated the presentation and agreed to work with Yoga Bharati and FAITHs in considering possible research collaborations.

Yoga for Kids with a difference

Our children’s yoga classes are also special in that we not only focus on yoga poses, but we do teach them to chant shlokas to build harmony of the mind and to root them into yogic tradition. Children of Yoga Bharati classes participate in Chinmaya Mission Gita Competition, Samskrita Bharati’s shloka competitions and bag awards! They are proud to be little yogis and to chant their Sanskrit shlokas.

Partnerships and Reach Outs

Yoga Bharati works with other organizations to help build network, spread the awareness, to bring the best of yoga research into our practice, and as a reach out program.

Research: We collaborate with SVYASA (Swami Vivekananda Yoga Research Foundation), Bengaluru and FAITHS (Foundation for Assessment and Integration of Traditional Health Systems), Bengaluru for bringing evidence based yoga into our yoga classes and therapy classes.
Community Service and Outreach: We provide free classes at various locations in the SF Bay Area, prominent temples, public libraries, community centers, Chinmaya Mission Balavihar programs, at India Community Center (Milpitas, Bay Area) and other locations in USA.
Vedanta: We collaborate with Sambodh Society for conducting annual workshops on Meditation, Yoga Philosophy and Vedanta.

Sanskrit: Since Sanskrit and Yoga go hand in hand, we refer our yoga students to Samskrita Bharati for Speak Sanskrit Course, and for higher studies on Sanskrit and also provide yoga classes for workshops and retreats of Samskrita Bharati.
Ayurveda: Working with Vedika Global (a Ayurveda School in Berkeley) to provide Yoga Darshan course as a part of their curriculum.
Yoga for Sports: We work with non-profit organizations like Sevathon, Ekal Vidyalaya and Chinmaya mission to conduct yoga sessions for their Marathon programs. Marathoners have given a feedback that they were able to improve their speed from 10%-30% after they took the yoga class. They also said they get less pain and less injury after taking yoga classes.

Making a Difference – A New WayInstead of providing fish to the needy, Yoga Bharati teaches them how to fish. Due to modern life style, extreme competitions, economic instability, relationships issues of fast paced individual-centric American society, etc, people are under tremendous stress. Lifestyle disorders such as obesity, diabetes, hypertension and heart diseases are becoming epidemics. To address this and to help people manage their lives better, Yoga Bharati conducts free classes in many locations in the Bay Area and different chapters of America. Our goal is to help people help themselves. Yoga Bharati has provided more than 400 yoga classes per week in various locations in the Bay Area alone (worth $4000 or more).

Simply by attending our regular free classes, people have made their lives better and are living in health and harmony. Many come to Yoga Bharati yoga teachers at the end of the class and explain how stressed they were just a couple of years ago and how peaceful, they feel after attending regular yoga classes.

Innovation - Yoga Bharati 2011 Report

Yoga Bharati – Yoga With a Difference

While there are a host of yoga studios mushrooming in every street in America these days, there are very few of these studios or organizations that provide yoga for the body, mind and spirit making it a wholesome and holistic practice. People perform strenuous acrobatic poses, toning the muscles, sweating and stretching in the name of yoga. Very few of them focus on mental and spiritual aspects of of yoga.

Yoga Bharati’s very foundation of yoga classes is to provide health at five dimensions of human existance (pancha koshas) – the physical, the pranic or life-force level, the emotional, intellectual and spiritual levels. With the technique of stimulation and relaxation and with the focus on building awareness, ours is an integrated approach to yoga geared to be holistic. We bring subtle aspects from the ancient wisdom of Upanishads, Bhagavad Gita and Patanjali Yoga sutras with its stress on Asthanga Yoga. This makes our classes very popular and people who attend our yoga classes are simply awestruck by their simplicity and effectiveness. Our goal is to achieve positive health for individual and society (Vyasthi and Samasti as said in Upanishads) combining the best of East with the best of West as envisioned by Swami Vivekananda.

In the same spirit of combining head, heart and hand in all its activities, Yoga Bharati provides many avenues for our trained teachers to offer community service (sewa) whether it is through providing free yoga classes to the community, connecting the community with various aspects of yoga philosophy or instilling in the younger generation a spark of curiosity in yoga practice and philosophy. There is increasing demand for our teachers training program among high school children to help them handle the stresses of high school and college.

Yoga Therapy with Research (Evidence based Yoga) - Yoga Bharati has made a great leap in therapeutic applications of yoga in association with SVYASA, which has immense background on research in Yoga Therapy. SVYASA has published over 100 research papers that are catalogued in pubmed and are peer reviewed. SVYASA houses 250 bed Yoga Therapy Health center called Arogyadhama. We have been conducting yoga classes for common ailments and special groups such as kids and pregnant women in SF Bay Area for the last three years with significant results. We conduct yoga for kids, prenatal and postnatal yoga, yoga for back/neck/shoulder pain, arthritis, hypertension, diabetes, weight loss and stress management, yoga for infertility, to name a few. The goal of Yoga Bharati’s yoga classes for ailments is three-fold:

• Help people with their ailments by giving them regular classes where they learn to relax better and to get relief on their ailments.
• Touch the hearts of people with the simple and profound yogic concepts so they understand how to manage their condition as well as they become better in their overall personality – physical, mental and spiritual outlook
• Develop research so that we practice Evidence based Therapy.

Yoga Teachers with depth of Yoga Foundation - Yoga Bharati conducts Yoga Teachers Training every year for three months as a weekend course. We bring this course from Swami Vivekananda Yoga Research Foundation (SVYASA), a premier yoga university in Bengaluru, India with its focus on yoga research. Our course conforms to the Yoga Alliance RYT200. It is however, different from many other courses because we focus on holistic aspects in our course. We bring the best of yoga masters from India and US and give the most authentic yoga concepts along with scientific explanation of the concepts where needed. Yoga Philosophy is taught by Yogashree N.V.Raghuram of SVYASA and Spiritual founder and Chairman of Yoga Bharati who has more than 20 years experience in teaching Yoga philosophy in over 30 countries all over the world. Yoga Bharati also provides a platform for all the yoga teachers to further enhance their yoga skills and for their self growth by providing year round study groups, discourses by yoga masters, yoga retreats, Suryanamaskar yagna (Sun Salutation Marathon), Stress Management and other such workshops.

Stress Management using Yoga - Yoga Bharati brings Stress Management workshops to various communities. Just to name a few,

• Yoga Bharati recently conducted a *free* SMET (Self Management of Excessive Tension, a SVYASA technique) in June 2011 at Sunnyvale Hindu Temple Auditorium for public and the doctors in the Bay Area. More than 100 folks participated in the event and enjoyed the wonderful discourse and SMET practice. This was presented by Shri. N.V.Raghuram of SVYASA and Dr.Naveen of FAITHS, Bengaluru.
• Conducted Stress Management workshop for Foster Parents at the department of Family and Child Services.
• Collaborated with Breathe California to bring Stress Management workshop for Senior Centers in the Bay Area.

Research Awareness for Medical Practitioners - One of the important initiatives of Yoga Bharati is to facilitate collaboration and awareness programs to bring research work on yoga in India to American medical community. Yoga Bharati arranged a Doctors Workshop in Sept 2010 where more than 30 doctors from various fields participated. Dr. Nagarathna, the chief of Medical staff at SVYASA chaired the event and shared the research work on Yoga in Diabetes, Cancer, Autism and many other ailments. A similar workshop was done in June 2011, where Dr. Naveen of FAITHS (Foundation for Assessment and Integration of Traditional Health Systems), Bengaluru, presented enormous data on research in Yoga Therapy. Doctors and research scientists at UCSF appreciated the presentation and agreed to work with Yoga Bharati and FAITHs in considering possible research collaborations.

Yoga for Kids with a difference - Our children’s yoga classes are also special in that we not only focus on yoga poses, but we do teach them to chant shlokas to build harmony of the mind and to root them into yogic tradition. Children of Yoga Bharati classes participate in Chinmaya Mission Gita Competition, Samskrita Bharati’s shloka competitions and bag awards! They are proud to be little yogis and to chant their Sanskrit shlokas.

Partnerships and Reach Outs - Yoga Bharati works with other organizations to help build network, spread the awareness, to bring the best of yoga research into our practice, and as a reach out program.

• Research: We collaborate with SVYASA (Swami Vivekananda Yoga Research Foundation), Bengaluru and FAITHS (Foundation for Assessment and Integration of Traditional Health Systems), Bengaluru for bringing evidence based yoga into our yoga classes and therapy classes.
• Community Service and Outreach: We provide free classes at various locations in the SF Bay Area, prominent temples, public libraries, community centers, Chinmaya Mission Balavihar programs, at India Community Center (Milpitas, Bay Area) and other locations in USA.

• Vedanta: We collaborate with Sambodh Society for conducting annual workshops on Meditation, Yoga Philosophy and Vedanta.
• Sanskrit: Since Sanskrit and Yoga go hand in hand, we refer our yoga students to Samskrita Bharati for Speak Sanskrit Course, and for higher studies on Sanskrit and also provide yoga classes for workshops and retreats of Samskrita Bharati.
• Ayurveda: Working with Vedika Global (a Ayurveda School in Berkeley) to provide Yoga Darshan course as a part of their curriculum.
• Yoga for Sports: We work with non-profit organizations like Sevathon, Ekal Vidyalaya and Chinmaya mission to conduct yoga sessions for their Marathon programs. Marathoners have given a feedback that they were able to improve their speed from 10%-30% after they took the yoga class. They also said they get less pain and less injury after taking yoga classes.

Making a Difference – A New Way - Instead of providing fish to the needy, Yoga Bharati teaches them how to fish. Due to modern life style, extreme competitions, economic instability, relationships issues of fast paced individual-centric American society, etc, people are under tremendous stress. Lifestyle disorders such as obesity, diabetes, hypertension and heart diseases are becoming epidemics. To address this and to help people manage their lives better, Yoga Bharati conducts free classes in many locations in the Bay Area and different chapters of America. Our goal is to help people help themselves. Yoga Bharati has provided more than 400 yoga classes per week in various locations in the Bay Area alone (worth $4000 or more).

Simply by attending our regular free classes, people have made their lives better and are living in health and harmony. Many come to Yoga Bharati yoga teachers at the end of the class and explain how stressed they were just a couple of years ago and how peaceful, they feel after attending regular yoga classes.

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Yoga Bharati and Vedika Global

Report on Ayurveda Workshop at Vedika Global

Vedika Global in association with Yoga Bharati, SF Bay Area Chapter, conducted a 2-day Ayurvedic Workshop for Yoga Practitioners’ on Sept 17th and 18th, 2011. The event was well attended with over 40 seekers attending and posing some interesting questions along the way.

All of us were greeted in Vedika Global with the tradition of applying chandan. kumkum and rice tilak – a common form of greeting in India. After being served wholesome breakfast of cream of wheat prepared with milk and spices, the session began with prayers and an introduction to Ayurveda by Vedika’s founder Shunya Pratichi Mathur and Dr. Mahesh, a visiting expert on Ayurveda from India.

The first day of the workshop was occupied by the history of Ayurveda and its practicality. Since time immemorial, sincere followers of Ayurveda have led a happy and healthy life without any major illnesses and with good stamina for 90-100 years old.

The Ancient Indian philosophy (Sanatana Dharma’s) pillars of life – Dharma, Artha, Kama, Moksha and its connection to Ayurveda was discussed. Anyone trying to achieve purushartha have to follow Ayurvedic rules, regulation and advice to achieve the results. The basics of Ayurveda were explained elegantly including the concept of Panchamabutas or five elements of nature – Earth, Water, Fire, Air, Space and its relationship to the Doshas– Vata, Pitta and Kapha. This led to the discussion on Ayurvedic rule of thumb –  ‘similarities’ increasedosha while dissimilarities’ decrease’ dosha.

The three concepts of Ayurveda – Dosha (Force), Dhatu (tissue) and Mala (Waste) were explained. A detailed explanation on Prakriti and Vikruti and the timing/age for precedence of the three Dosha’s in Human Body was also given. Throughout the explanation, examples of patients were given, some of who were present in the room.

On the second day, the concept of Agni and Aama was explained along with the importance of digestion in Ayurveda. The six tastes (Shad Rasas) and their role in correcting and maintaining proper doshas in the body for health were discussed. Restorative yogasanas and pranayama for different doshas were discussed.  The entire session was interactive with all of our questions answered diligently.

This was followed by cooking demonstration by Sanjayji, whose cooking we enjoyed on both the days. He demonstrated making of rose water, spiced milk and kadhi. The samples were heavenly. We all parted ways after the two-day workshop but it left a deep rooted desire to seek more on this ancient art of life – Ayurveda!

On both days, we had sumptuous, healthy, Ayurvedic breakfast and lunch. We are truly blessed to have received this knowledge and have some true gurus close to us.

Details about Vedika can be found at: http://www.vedikaglobal.org/

Yoga and Stress Management Dr Naveen and Raghuramji

 June 18th, 2011
Sunnyvale
Yoga Bharati conducted a workshop on Yoga and Stress Management where close to hundred people attended and enjoyed the event. The workshop was also attended by the doctors and medical researchers who were interested in the ongoing research in yoga and its therapeutic effects.
This workshop was presented by Shri N.V.Raghuram, the spiritual founder of Yoga Bharati and a faculty member at SVYASA (Swami Vivekananda Yoga Research Foundation), Bengaluru, India, and Dr.Naveen Vishweshwaraih of FAITHS (Foundation for Assessment and Integration of Traditional Health Systems). Both these institutions are working on bringing research papers on the therapeutic effects of yoga. SVYASA has published over 150 papers on yoga applications for various ailments such as diabetes, hypertension, backpain, autism, cancer and many more.
Shri Raghuram presented the concepts of yoga and its effect on Stress. He showed the example of Arjuna’s mental condition in Bhagavad Gita and explained that his sudden decision to withdraw from the inevitable war imposed on them, his trembling hands and legs and his hesitation to fight the war in the battlefield showed the signs of anxiety disorder. “Krishna explained him the concepts of yoga and counseled him to come out of his confusions to take his own battle decisions. Simple and profound yogic counseling of Krishna could relax Arjuna to get clarity of mind even in the battlefield” said Shri Raghuram. Raghuramji also explained how yoga can help us in handling our stress in day-to-day life and how we all can learn from the example of Arjuna.

Dr. Naveen presented the research side of yoga in the most elegant and amazing manner. He began with how yoga can help counter stress by giving examples from Patanjali Yoga Sutras and then quickly moved into the most exciting part of the program by showing us the graphs and charts on the effects of different asanas, pranayama and meditation on the psycho-physiology of our personalities. He presented the research on the ability to control involuntary systems of the body such as heart rate, body temperature by the yogis and also showed how the prefrontal cortex of a yogi looks like, using EEG and other clinical neurophysiology tools.. He also demonstrated the research data on heart rate variability of postures such a Shirshasana (head stand) and practices like Kapala Bhati, Nadi Shuddhi (alternate nostril breathing) and single nostril breathing like Surya anuloma viloma (right) and Chandra anuloma viloma (left) and their effects on psycophysiology parameters such as oxygen consumption, blood pressure, galvanic skin resistance, memory and grip strength, spatial memory, etc, using the bio-feedback tools. He then explained SVYASA’s Cyclic Meditation Technique and its effect on stress management and also the physiological effects of Cyclic Meditation such as respiration, peak amplitude, peak latency, memory scores, etc.

 After Dr. Naveen’s presentation, the audience enjoyed the practice of Cyclic Meditation by Shri N.V.Raghuram and at the end was Q&A session where the audience flooded Dr.Naveen with questions which were all answered effectively. The doctors present in the audience were excited over the research data presented and they expressed their interest in working on bringing yoga and its research to their patient community. Sri N.V.Raghuram is a professor at SVYASA University and the spiritual founder of Yoga Bharati. With more than 20 years of yoga experience, Sri Raghuram conducts workshops and yoga discourses during several retreats and conferences around the world. He has been instrumental in starting yoga therapy programs in many hospitals and medical research centers in US and Europe.
Dr. Naveen. Visweswaraiah is the Director, Foundation for Assessment and Integration of Traditional Health Systems [FAITHS], Bengaluru. He is also a Co-Principal Investigator at ICMR Center for Advanced Research in Yoga and Neurophysiology and Associate Professor at SVYASA.

Sevathon 2011

On the beautiful sunny morning of Sunday July 17th, approx 1500 people came together at Bayland's park in Sunnyvale to run for the charity of their cause under the banner of Sevathon 2011, wearing beautiful Gandhi topis (caps). 

Yoga Bharati participated in Sevathon 2011 with a great festivity. UNISH corporation sponsored Yoga Bharati. More than 20 participants ran and raised funds for Yoga Bharati at Sevathon 2011. Yoga teachers of Yoga Bharati taught yoga for all the marathon runners and 10k/5k walkers before and after the run/walk. 

Yoga Bharati booth was buzzling with activity where people got information about various yoga activities such as free yoga classes, yoga therapy classes, yoga for kids, prenatal yoga, etc. People signed up for yoga classes on the spot.

Sevathon's vision is to create the largest community-wide walkathon and awareness platform dedicated to “Seva” or “Service” and to local non-profits who share this principle.

Swami Bodhananda 2011 Meditation Report

Yoga Bharati SF Bay Area hosted Swami Bodhananda Saraswati for three weeks in Nov 2011. Swami Bodhananda Saraswati is highly respected in India and America as an accomplished teacher of Vedanta and Meditation. Swamiji was in the Bay Area from Oct 25th to Nov 13th and Yoga Bharati organized Meditation workshops in Sunnyvale and Fremont, Vedanta and Parenting and Gita and Management. All his programs were very well received. His last day of Meditation had over 50 people attending the session. His Meditation in Fremont had more than 25 people and the room was packed. His Gita and Management workshop had more than 35 people who listened to him intently. It was a whole day event.

Yoga Retreat 2011

Yoga Teacher Training (YIC) 2011 Grass Valley Retreat – a Report

About 60 volunteers and YIC 2011 batch students with their families went to Shivanand Ashram, Grass Valley, near Sacramento from July 2nd to 4th 2011. It was a two day retreat where the participants got an experience of Ashram’s daily life that consisted of morning meditation, bhajans, satsang,  morning and evening yogasana classes, arati and prasad offering. Ashram’s satvic vegan meals at 10am and 6pm were wholesome, healthy, complete and soul filling. Apart from Ashram’s activities, Yoga Bharati organized satsang and discussions between noon and 4pm. Shree N.V.Raghuram, the spiritual founder of Yoga Bharati conducted the satsangs and discussions. The ambience of the Ashram, the friendly, hospitable and accommodative Ashram staff and management, and Raghuramji’s wisdom filled talks were a great elixir for the inner quest and curiosity of the retreat attendees. Most of all, the purity and authenticity of Vedantic tradition in the ashram and the simplicity and spiritual ferver of the ashramites was the highlight of the retreat experience. Many retreat attendees said that it was like visiting ancient India with all its glory.

The retreat began on Saturday morning with check-in and brunch. After this, we all met in the main yoga hall (Bhrama-Jiignasu mandir) which was a beautiful room with a pedestal on which Dakshinamurthy was placed in the center, the murty’s of Swami Shivananda and Swami Vishnudevananda on either side and Shankaracharya’s pratima to the side blessing us all. The very appearance of this setting set the retreat attendees at peace and we were all ready to begin the satsang. Swami Sitaramananda, Director and the spiritual head of Shivananda Ashram welcomed us all and a wonderful introduction of the lineage of Swami Shivananda right from Sankaracharya to Vishudevananda was explained. Raghuramji talked about how he had met Swami Vishnudevananda when he was a teenager. Raghuramji then gave us all a wonderful discourse on the topic of “Yagna”. He explained how yagna always took place in creation from time immemorial. He said that many refer to yagna as a ‘sacrifice’, but yagna is more than that. Every seed has a tree in it. Only when the seed gives up his seed-ness would a seed become a tree. So yagna in essence is nothing but the constant transformation and change that happens in the creation. The food that we eat becomes energy and hence it is also yagna – said Raghuramji. He explained the meaning of ”brahmarpanam brahmahavihi”. He talked about four types of yagnas mentioned in Bhagavad Gita – dravya yagna, tapo yagna, swadhyaya yagna and Jnana yagna. He also explained the significance of ghee put in the yagna. Cow’s milk signifies satva. Curdling of milk represents the paradigm shift from the materialistic thinking to the spiritual thinking of a seeker. Churning of the yogurt represents the constant nidhi-dhyasana or spiritual churning that we must do. The result of this churning is the butter which represents spiritual knowledge. When this is further purified and ego is removed with the fire of sadhana, ghee results – pure Jnana without any ego. When any task is thus done without ego, it becomes yagna.

The talk was followed by a discussion on our respective Karma Yoga. People talked about what was their spiritual experience was, after completing the yoga course and what is the karma yoga that they all want to be part of, in their sadhana, and in contributing to spreading the message of yoga.

The evening session was specially wonderful as we had a great bhajan concert by a local  group of singers from Sacred Caravan group. They sang bhajans with their wonderful instruments - flute, 12 string guitar, harp, tabla and other instruments. Their professional performance, their beautiful voices and their devotional and passionate rendering of the songs was enchanting. They sang bhajans on Ganesha, Shiva, Krishna, Rama, Hanuman and Gandhiji’s Raghupati Raghava song. They also performed some wonderful solo Hindustani instrumental pieces and a great rendering of an instrumental piece on Harp. The audience was mesmerized.

On Sunday morning Swami Sitaramananada conducted meditation, bhajans, and then talked beautifully on Prana, Pancha Bhutas, the way to channelize prana and how to live life so that our pranic body is in good health, etc. We had a satvic brunch and then we all set out to a small hike to Durga Mandir. The small and yet neatly constructed temple, the beautiful pratima of Durga in the sactum sanctorum, the cool and shady veranda outside the temple, the flora and fauna around the temple, a little bubbly pond and a white marble shivalinga at the center of the pond created our moods for a bhajan session. We sat at the veranda in a circle and sang Devi bhajans followed by a song from Supriya on Tyagaraja composition, Shiva bhajan by Ankita and Gayatri Mantra song by Vedant and Shushant  sung in a classical style. Raghuramji explained how Tyagaraja attained the first advaita state (Nirvikalpa Samadhi) and how he sang the song after coming back from the advaita Samadhi where he sung a song that said, he missed mother Sita, Rama and Lakshmanna in that advaita state and was glad to be back to the normal dualistic world. This gives Dvaita state as much grandeur as Advaita in Indian philosophy. Raghuramji answered the question on whether one can deviate from the traditional chanting style and said that it was okay to sing it in other ways and enjoy, although all the benefits stated in the Vedas may not be obtained when the rules of Vedas such as udatta, anudatta, sarita, etc are not followed. With many such discussions on various topics, no one wanted to leave the temple,  but we had to disperse eventually.

We met in the Brahma-jignasu hall again and then after a refreshing drink of lemonade and orange juice prepared by Yoga Bharati volunteers, and a wonderful deep relaxation by Yogi Mahendra, we all moved into a question and answer session. One of the questions was about chanting of A-U-M versus OM and when are we allowed to break into Akara, Ukara and Mkara and when should we not do so. Another set of questions was about who is Ekanath Ranade, how was Vivekananda Rock Memorial and Vivekananda Yoga Movement began. Yet another topic was about ‘What is the meaning of false belief?’, ‘Is there is such a thing as false belief?’, ‘Being a seeker for Self is a selfish act?’, ‘Shreyas and Preyas mentioned in Kathopanishad’, etc. Raghuramji addressed each of the questions in his own elegant manner where his answers were logical, rational and scientific and satisfying to both a rebel inside the seekers as well as to the already surrendered seekers. No one left the hall without getting their questions answered.

On Sunday evening, there was a beautiful bhajan session followed by satsang by Swami  Swaroopananda who is the head of Shivananda Ashram in Bahamas and Israel and was visiting the ashram. He answered some of the questions such as – ‘Can we change the world?’, ‘Is there such a thing as good and bad?’, ‘Why do we have fear’?, ‘Should  we be good to people who are bad to us?’, etc. Swamiji answered every question elegantly and satisfyingly with references to Vedanta, Sankaracharya’s philosophy, Bhagavad Gita quotes and with references to Swami Shivananda and Vishudevandanda’s teachings. To the question “Can we change the world?”, he beautifully explained that we cannot change the world, but only change ourselves. He said however, we can never give the world what we don’t have, so we need to make an effort to have good values and then share with the world what we have and that makes the world a better place. He referred to Swami Shivananda’s teaching to “be good and do good”. To the question “Is there such a thing and good and bad?”, he cleverly understood the intent of Advaita student where Advaita is beyond all of the duality and said that in the dualistic world we live, there is something called dharma and adharma. He said ‘there is such a thing as the right way to fly an airplane and a wrong way’ and said that we should attempt to follow the path of dharma. He said that only to the yogi who has transcended the universe, there is no duality and only then he can be beyond good and bad. To the question “Should we be good to those who are bad to us?”, he referred to Hindu Karma theory and said when someone is bad to us, we should think that it is perhaps because we have inflicted bad to others in our past lives. So the smart thing to do would be to do good to others now, so that they will be good to us later. To the question about fear, he beautifully explained how fear in inevitable in dualistic world and until and unless we realize the inherent non-dual reality, we all have to  face fear.

We ended the retreat on Monday morning after the Ashram’s morning activity where Swami Sitaramananda explained the workings of the mind, its distractions, how to control the mind, and how japa, tapa, yogasanas, etc help us come out of the distractions and help us realize ourselves. After the brunch, we had a photo session with Swami Sitaramananda and a concluding program (see below for picture). She read some of the poems that she had written about Swami Vishnudevananda and then blessed us all. She was happy to see a large Indian group visiting the ashram which she said rarely happens. She asked us to visit regularly. She also gave some books as souvenirs for Yoga Bharati. Raghuramji and Swami Sitaramananda exchanged good words before concluding. Little Ankita sang Bhagavad Gita shlokas in front of Swami Sitarananda that made everyone ecstatic with joy. All the kids had a great time and did not want to leave the ashram.

We got a deep experience of Karma Yoga where Yoga Bharati folks took turns to help in the kitchen and cleaning of dishes, we experienced Raja Yoga with excellent asana classes, we experienced Bhakti in the meditation, bhajans and aarati and Prasad, and we experienced Jnana yoga with all the satsangs we attended by Swami Sitaramananda, Swami Swaroopananda and Raghuramji. It was a spiritual retreat indeed!

 

YIC 2011 Inauguration Report

Yoga Bharati SFO Bay area chapter organized YIC 2011 inauguration on March 27, 2011 at Sunnyvale Temple auditorium in a grand way!

The chief guest for the occasion was Acharya Prabodh Chaitanyaji of Chinmaya Mission. More than 120 people gathered on Sunday afternoon to inaugurate YIC2011. The event was kicked off around 4: PM by a chanting of the AUMs and the starting prayer “Sahana Vavatu” that created an atmosphere of peace all around! The event was formally inaugurated by the lighting of the lamp by Acharyaji against a background of chanting of “Asatoma Sadga Maya…” by the children along with the audience. This was followed by a minute of silence in honor of all those fellow humans in Japan who lost their lives in the recent Tsunami and earthquake. Savitha.Nanjangud, the MC of the program then announced the agenda and began the program.

What followed was a delight to the creative senses! The children of Yoga Bharati presented a Ganesha Vanadana/Gayatri Mantra (Vedanth/Sushanth), a Bharatnatyam performance(Ankita Jain), Hindustani Classical songs (Chinmay Surpur)and a beautiful yoga dance/formations(all the children of the Yoga Bharati kids yoga classes)!

Anil Surpur welcomed the new batch and gave a brief overview of Yoga Bharati and its achievements. Sharat Joshi introduced the chief guest, Acharya Prabodh Chaitanya, to the audience.

Acharyaji addressed the audience and gave ‘Ashirvachana’ to YICC2011 students at this point. He took the opportunity to beautifully sketch out the role of the Guru and a good student with a brief explanation of the ‘guru-shishya parampara’! He inspired the incoming students with what would be their role in the process of learning and at the same time clarified how each one of us was always a student learning from everything around us. He spoke about how the Bhagavad Gita could be adopted in this context and also in our daily life! The audience was simply thrilled at these words of wisdom and to be in his presence! After the talk, Acharyaji answered questions from the audience about how to apply spiritual knowledge in everyday life and about how to judge what progress we have made in our journey towards our individual goals.

After Acharyaji’s address, the president of Yoga Bharati, Anil Surpur honored Acharyaji with a fruit basket and a humble contribution to Sandeepani building. This was followed by the certificate award ceremony to the recent YICC graduates. Shailesh Basani briefed the students with YIC information and also introduced the faculty for 2011.

After Acharyaji’s address, the president of Yoga Bharati, Anil Surpur honored Acharyaji with a fruit basket and a humble contribution to Sandeepani building. This was followed by the certificate award ceremony to the recent YICC graduates. Shailesh Basani briefed the students with YIC information and also introduced the faculty for 2011.

The vote of thanks was given by Venkat Reddy and he concluded the session with a prayer, which was later followed by a sumptuous healthy dinner.

SNY 2011 Concluding Report

Feb 12th, 2011

Yoga Bharati, USA concluded their annual six weeks Suryanamaskar yagna (Sun Salutations Marathon) today.  More than 1000 people all over America participated in the yagna and performed  close to 100,000 Suryanamaskars.  About 250 individuals submitted their logs for a healthy competition.  Yoga Bharati teachers made Suryanamaskars as the focus of their free public classes at various centers in different chapters such as SF Bay Area, Detroit, Los Angeles, San Diego and Atlanta.

Yoga Bharati Bay Area chapter arranged a concluding program at the Sunnyvale temple where more than 50 people gathered to perform Suryanamaskars in a synchronous  group practice. The program began with a chanting of Aditya Hrudayam by Sharat Joshi. This was followed by a talk by Ashwini Surpur on the background, philosophy and significance of Sun worship by different cultures around the world. She explained the significance of Ratha Saptami and of practicing Suryanamaskars, how Suryanamaskar practice works at the body level through various asanas, at the prana level when breathing is synchronized with body movements, and at the mind level when mantras are chanted and their vibrations contemplated upon. Finally she said, with a yagna like this, the entire society comes together to celebrate health and harmony of the society and it becomes a festival for the entire society.

This talk was followed by yoga practice session by Binta Patel. After the initial demonstration and corrections, thirteen rounds of Suryanamaskars were performed with music giving them a sense of synergy and enthusiasm. Binta conducted a deep relaxation session, the yoga nidra, followed by pranayama and meditation. Then was the session where Suryanamaskar statistics were read out and the names of the leading people in different categories such as men, women and children were announced. During the feedback session that followed, people expressed their benefits and how this practice helped them.

Sharat Joshi, who performed an average of 100 Suryanamaskars for the last six weeks said his energy level was very high and he was very efficient at work. ‘When I went for a ski trip with a group at work, everyone else was tired the next day, but I was totally fine’, he said. Prajwala Darog who performed an average of 40 Surayanamaskars per day said she felt healthy and happy throughout the six weeks and most importantly, she felt calm and peaceful within. Anil Surpur said with Suryanamaskars, he can do his marathons without trouble and he has increased his mile time.  Another regular Saturday public class attendee who participated in the yagna said, her planter fascias was much better now.

The programconcluded with Shanti Mantra and people enjoyed healthy snacks provided by Yoga Bharati volunteers.