Last year I turned 40.

As a special birthday gift, my mum offered me a trip to India. We would go together for two weeks and then she would continue travelling another month with a friend. She told me to pick the places I wanted to go and she would arrange the first two weeks according to my interests. I made a list of all the holy places of pilgrimage in Northern India that I had heard about from books and friends. Then we planned the itinerary.

 My mum is a world traveler who’s been to the Amazon and climbed mountains in Peru. She looks and acts 20 years younger than her age, but she is 70. I had been to India before and she hadn’t. I was a bit worried that going to India might be a bit of a shock, culturally and physically. At places of spiritual pilgrimage, the conditions are not always the most comfortable by Western standards. We wanted to be comfortable – we wanted to have clean food, clean water, a clean place to sleep, and even wi-fi so mum could post her nightly travel blogs.

 We decided to travel with a guide recommended by a friend. This wonderful man, Dinesh arranged a custom tour for us of all the holy places I wanted to see. A driver and car took us everywhere, we had comfortable accommodations, and places to eat. It was quite a high-end spiritual pilgrimage! Still we could not avoid seeing the poverty, the beggars, the open sewers, and the skinny homeless dogs in the streets. It made us very aware how privileged we were to have our needs met.

 One of my favorite moments on the trip was not a an official pilgrimage site, but when Dinesh took us home to visit with his family. He and his wife Manisha live in a small apartment adjoining his mother’s apartment on ground floor of a building with an open courtyard space. Kids play in the courtyard, while mums hang laundry.

Dinesh & Manisha are busy working at their travel office most of the day, and meanwhile his mother cleans, cooks, and takes care of their homes. While we were having tea and biscuits, a cow came to the open door; Dinesh’s mother gave her a bowl of salad leaves. A few monkeys stopped by for freshly baked chapatis. Dinesh’s mother feeds the local animals daily and makes it a point to offer the food to them first. There is a Jewish biblical law that states you should always feed the animals before yourself. The first chapati of the day always goes to a monkey.

We watched the weeds blossom and whither with the passing of the seasons.

One of our favorite things was observing snails. They seemed so mysterious and coy, hidden deep within their shells. To see a snail emerge from the depths of the shell, and watch that soft body move slowly, tentacles delicately waving, was the ultimate joy.

There’s a song in Hebrew that little kids sing to snails to coax them out of their shells (oblivious to the fact that snails actually have no ears or sense of hearing). If you sing it very quietly and sweetly, with sincerity, somehow, magically the snail will emerge.

Similarly, when we chant the divine names, we are calling out to something deep within ourselves, something hidden, in order to coax it out of hiding. That something is our true nature – our highest self.

The Maha Mantra (the great mantra) has been prescribed in yogic scriptures for those living in the Kali Yuga (the current age), as a way to destroy the negative aspects of ourselves and reveal the highest aspect.
HARE KRSNA HARE KRSNA
KRSNA KRSNA HARE HARE
HARE RAMA HARE RAMA
RAMA RAMA HARE HARE
– Kali Santarana Upanishad, 15th century.

“Chanting kirtan is the heart practice of yoga. When we are in love, our hearts are constantly calling out the name of our lover. Chanting is that calling.”—Krishna das

If you’re in NYC for the holidays and craving yoga, here’s my day by day schedule for the next 3 weeks. Some classes are cancelled due to holidays and the Jivamukti Tribe Gathering. But mostly I’m around and would love to see you.

12/25 SUNDAY. 10am Open class, Prema Yoga
12/26 MONDAY. 8:15 Meditation, Prema Yoga. 12pm open class, Jivamukt
12/27 TUESDAY. 9:30am Open class, Yoga People
12/28 WEDNESDAY, 10am Open class, Jivamukti
12/29 THURSDAY. No class.
12/30 FRIDAY. No class.
12/31 SATURDAY. No class.

1/1 SUNDAY. No class.
1/2 MONDAY. No class.
1/3 TUESDAY. 12pm Open class, Jivamukti
1/4 WEDNESDAY. No class. (the Jivamukti 10am open class will be taught by Sangeeta)
1/5 THURSDAY. 2:15pm talk on “Spirituality & Environmental Activism” with No Impact Man, Prince George Ballroom & 8pm International Spiritual Warrior class, Jivamukti
1/6 FRIDAY. 11am Open class & 6pm Basics class, Jivamukti
1/7 SATURDAY. 6pm Open class, Jivamukti.

1/8 SUNDAY. Regular schedule resumes: 10:45am Open class. Yogaworks. 3pm Open class, Jivamukti.

For info & directions to the yoga studios:
Jivamukti, Union Square
Prema Yoga, Brooklyn
Yoga People, Brooklyn
Yogaworks, West Side

‘Yoga in New York Project’ by Wari.cat.
Sponsored by Yoga Journal & Hanuman Clothing.

Full gallery at wari.cat and Flickr

I spent the first 9 months at a basic training camp. We ran around a lot, in heavy, uncomfortable uniforms that didn’t fit well and ate bad food. Among other things, I learned how to use 3 types of rifles, how to give first aid, and how to respond in the event of a gas attack.

As the service progressed, it became more agriculturally focused and less military. We worked on kibbutz communities in different parts of the country helping to plant, pick, and package fruit: mostly dates and mangos. Gradually we began to peel away the layers of uniform and we gave back our guns. We didn’t need them anymore in our last year. This last year was a time of almost complete freedom. We lived and worked in a kibbutz, wore civilian clothes, and had weekends off.

After working for a while in the dining room and the laundry, I was offered a job in the cowshed. I was a vegetarian, I loved animals and I thought that taking care of them would be interesting. Plus my best friend worked there and we wanted to work together.

My job was to milk the cows once a day and do whatever other maintenance work was needed in the cowshed. There were about 200 cows in the herd, they lived outdoors in shaded yards. They all had names. One cow was called Tamar and I always looked for her.

I slowly learned how things worked. The cows were milked 3 times a day. We looked for signs of ovulation and when they were ovulating, the inseminator would come. With his hand in a glove he would put his hand into the cows and inseminate them, one by one. When a baby was born, they went to a special shed where all the calves were taken care of together. They didn’t see their mothers again until they grew up and started having babies too. The first-time mothers were very resistant to being milked – they often kicked and had to be restrained. When the male calves grew a bit bigger, they were separated from the female calves, and some time later were sent to slaughter. All of this took place every day, matter-of-factly in the fresh air and sunshine. I didn’t think of it then, but none of those cows ever had a chance to have a family life, or choose a mate, to make love.

In the Yoga Sutras, Master Patanjali lists 5 ethical guidelines that are the foundation of the yoga practice. The first is non-harming, the second is truthfulness, the third is non-stealing, the fourth is called Brahmacarya.

Brahmacarya means to understand the potential of sexual energy and not to use it to manipulate others. To respect and acknowledge sexual energy as a creative force and to learn how to channel your sexual energy in a way that will lead you towards enlightenment.

Often the word Brahmacarya is explained as a vow of chastity. My teachers suggest we look a little deeper.

They ask that we look at how we interfere with and manipulate the sexuality and force of creation in other beings. And that we think about whether we want to participate in that.

If we learn how to wisely and sensitively channel sexual energy, Patanjali says we will gain vitality.

Brahmacarya-pratishthayam virya-labhah (PYS II.38)
When one does not misuse sexual energy, one obtains enduring vitality resulting in good health–translation by Sharon Gannon.

A very powerful way to practice brahmacarya is to adopt a vegan diet, a plant based diet, that is clean and not based on sexual manipulation.

Yoga of Movement and Sound with Tamar Samir.
“With the aroma of delicious vegan delights wafting from the café, Yoga Sleuth settled in at the spacious Krishna room of Jivamukti downtown, piano music playing softly as it heralded the arrival of Tamar Samir.

The presence of this experienced and highly regarded instructor immediately gave an added air of calm to the room of 14 yogis. Tamar thanked us for starting our day with her, and we immediately jumped into action with a set of rolling Vinyasas. But this was just a warm-up. We quickly returned to a seated position, legs in Baddha Konasana and sit bones propped on our blankets, for a little Dharma talk.

Tamar revealed to us Jivamukti’s Focus of the Month, from Chapter 2 of the Yoga Sutras of Patanjali: “Heyam Dukham Anagatam”, which means that “future suffering is to be avoided.”

“We’re not in control of the present,” said Tamar. “Because everything happening in the present has already been determined by our past actions. We can’t really change it, we can only change the way that we deal with it. But we can change our future, shape our future to be what we want it to be, through the actions of the present.”

With this in mind we embarked on an extended session of the Jivamukti staple: devotional chanting. “Through this mantra, through this chant, the intention is to spread peace, love, joy, auspiciousness, tranquility, harmony, to all aspects of the universe through everyone and everything, including ourselves.”

We came to stand in Tadasana at the front of our mats. “Feel yourself extending in two directions,” said Tamar. “Pressing down through the feet and up through the spine. Breathe deeply and make that sound audible.” Soon the room was awash with the sound of Ujjayi breath as we reached our prayers to the heavens and then folded into Uttanasana.

“We go very fast in this class,” said Tamar, “so take a break whenever you feel the need.” And this was not hyperbole; the Sun Salution A and B portions of class were the quickest paced sequences I’ve experienced for some time. In Surya Namaskar A we stayed one breath in plank, one breath in Chaturanga, one breath in Up Dog, alternating the latter with “knees chest and chin” and Cobra.

We only slowed it down for five breaths roughly every third Down Dog. In Surya B we stayed for a nanosecond in Virabhadrasana I before opening into Warrior II, then going immediately into a reverent warrior and Parsvakonasa.

In the latter Tamar was not shy about pulling my torso and pressing on my bent knee to get me into my best expression of the pose. She did the same later as we went into Flying Crow prep; as I crossed my right ankle over my bent knee, she stood behind me and had me literally use her knees as a seat, releasing me finally so I could soar into my Eka Pada Galavasana.

In Ardha Matsyendrasana she was with me as well, assisting me to make sure I was keeping my spine straight and distributing the twist evenly, and that my front foot was properly grounded. In Paschimottanasana, Tamar suggested that we put blocks against our heels and grab on to them if we could, which kept our fleet flexing and allowed for maximum stretch of the hamstring.

From here we dipped into the Ashtanga playbook, challenging our soaked but energized bodies in Marichyasana A. Though not generally a “binder,” I found after the work we had done I was coming very close to joining my fingers behind my wrapped leg and thigh. Then we came down to the mat for 3 intense wheels. Tamar suggested we point our heels outwards to keep our knees from splaying, and the cue improved my foundation instantly.

Shoulderstand was followed by a foray into fish, and a climactic headstand spilled right into a lengthy Savasana, where we well lulled into yogic sleep by the strains of the poignant Jack Johnson version of “Imagine.” Rising once more we sat in Sukhasana for meditation before sealing our practice with a reprise of our chanting.

As I was putting my props away, I spied Tamar staying “after school” to give an eager student some help with her headstand practice. I smiled at the thought that Tamar was giving of herself by bringing her auspiciousness and wisdom to one who needed it.”

–Jim Catapano for Yoga Sleuth

Jivamukti Yoga Center
841 Broadway #2
Wed 10:00 AM to 11:30 AM
Intermediate
www.jivamuktiyoga.com

Yoga can be a form of activism!

Moving Planet: Yoga
With Jivamukti Yoga Teachers Jessica Stickler & Tamar Samir
Sat, Sept 24, 1:30-2pm
Dag Hammarskjold Plaza.
Gateway to the United Nations, East 47th Street @ 1st & 2nd Ave.

On Sept 24 at 1:30pm, Jivamukti Yoga teachers Jessica & Tamar will lead a short yoga class, as part of Moving Planet, a worldwide rally to demand solutions to the climate crisis. Moving Planet is organized by 350.org.

The class will take place at the same location as the New York City Moving Planet rally. The rally starting at 2pm, will include major environmental speakers, such as top climate scientist Dr. James Hansen, a delegation of indigenous leaders from around the world, local climate leaders like Colin Beavan (“No Impact Man”), and special guests.

Yoga is an ancient form of movement that is simple, self-propelled, and inspired by the natural world. Yoga proposes a respectful and sustainable relationship with the earth. Move as one, and show our political leaders we must move beyond fossil fuels. Join us!

Class is free, all levels welcome.
All participants will receive a free Moving Planet t-shirt.

www.jivamuktiyoga.com
www.movingplanet.org
Yoga event invite FB: https://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=112918955480496
Yoga event invite MPNYC: http://www.moving-planet.org/events/us/new-york-city/1988
Rally info: http://www.moving-planet.org/events/us/manhattan/348



Join me for a special outdoor yoga class, part of Moving Planet, a worldwide day to move beyond fossil fuels.

Sat, Sept 24, 1:30-2pm
At DAG HAMMARSKJOLD PLAZA.
Gateway to the United Nations, East 47th Street @ 1st & 2nd Ave.
Free. More info to come.