| Copyright 2006 Alanna Kaivalya | | | | Yoga came into my life in a fairly traditional |
| Many people ask me if I can recommend where they | | | | (American) way. I started going to classes during |
| should study yoga on their travels to the birthplace | | | | college simply for health reasons, which is the way |
| of this ancient Indian philosophy. I humbly admit to | | | | most people enter into a yoga practice. Something |
| them that I have never been to India. My gurus are | | | | very strong took hold, and I've been an avid |
| in New York-and they are American. | | | | practitioner since. A nagging desire sent me to study |
| Most people are surprised at this admission. They | | | | with Sharon Gannon and David Life, and my whole |
| question me regarding this. After all, if I am a yogi, | | | | world turned upside down. In their presence, I |
| shouldn't my guru be an Indian man? Well, the gurus | | | | learned what the term "guru" meant. In short, I |
| of my gurus are Indian men, but in my case, I look | | | | learned to surrender to another being who could |
| into the soft brown eyes and pale skin of my gurus | | | | show me my true Light. |
| when I bow before them. | | | | I know what you're thinking, Wow, that's some |
| It's funny. yoga has taken such a hold in America, | | | | pretty esoteric, frou frou talk for a western girl! |
| yet some misconceptions are still etched in the | | | | Believe me, I would have thought so myself before I |
| practice. For example, we think yoga is practiced in | | | | stood in their presence, but something in me shifted |
| hot rooms just because it is hot in India; we have | | | | as I listened to them talk at my teacher training. I |
| this image in our minds of ancient yogis practicing | | | | felt that strong sense of individuality that Americans |
| warrior two and sun salutations, and we think that in | | | | prize so highly start to slip away. Suddenly, life wasn't |
| order to be a true guru, your nationality matters. | | | | all about me anymore, and for the first time, I didn't |
| In this day and age of yoga, its evolution has taken a | | | | feel alone. To put it bluntly, loneliness is nasty. A |
| major turn, one towards the west. More westerners | | | | study by the National Institute of Aging says that, |
| are doing yoga today, at least the practice we define | | | | "People who feel lonely have more health problems |
| as yoga, than Indians. There is a saying now that | | | | and a shorter life expectancy than those who do not |
| there is more yoga on the lower east side of | | | | feel lonely." Loneliness plagues Americans; it causes |
| Manhattan than there is in all of India. Westerners | | | | stress, shortens our lives, and, in general, makes us a |
| have taken yoga to the next level-a level of fitness, | | | | despondent and sorrowful lot. |
| industry, and fashion-yet many yogis still try to | | | | Well, I've found the cure for this common American |
| remain close to the roots of yoga. | | | | disease called loneliness, and it's a guru. Yes, finding |
| One of the ways that yogis strive to remain closely | | | | someone who will 'ru' (remove) your 'gu' (darkness or |
| tied to the true purpose of the practice is by | | | | muck) is a surefire way to find peace and a release |
| tightening their grip on what they think is most | | | | from the ills that plague you. You see, we are all like |
| "classical," the finding of a guru. This is, in my opinion, | | | | tiny drops of the ocean wandering around, and until |
| the most important piece of yogic philosophical | | | | we get back, we don't have the great vast sea of |
| principles. While the west has shaped yoga and | | | | knowledge or bliss from which to draw. One of the |
| turned it into an amazing practice that many people | | | | quickest ways to get back to the ocean is to find |
| need right now, the one thing that hasn't seemed to | | | | yourself a guru, a person or group of people, who |
| catch up with this tidal wave is the idea of a guru. | | | | can teach you life's greatest lessons without your |
| Many practitioners think that it's not important. In | | | | protest and without your ego saying, "I'm going to |
| truth, some think that guru is a bad word, and those | | | | do it my way." Some people think that surrender to |
| who get over the stigma of what a guru tends to | | | | a guru makes you bland and uninteresting, but by |
| represent think a practitioner has to go to India to | | | | adding your drop of the ocean back into the |
| find one. This is simply not true. Yoga, as we know it, | | | | voluminous sea, you actually have more to draw |
| is largely a western phenomenon, and it is western | | | | from and can become a much more rich and vibrant |
| yogis who have created it and helped it to evolve | | | | individual. |
| into the practice we know today. It is they who | | | | You don't have to travel to India; you don't even |
| have crafted the practical application of yoga for | | | | have to be Indian. You don't even have to practice |
| modern day living, so why should we not turn to | | | | yoga very much to find a guru. The great thing is |
| them to learn all we can of their designs? Whether it | | | | about this tradition is that "when the student is |
| is Ashtanga, Iyengar, Kripalu, Jivamukti, Viniyoga, | | | | ready, the teacher will appear," so, sit back, relax, be |
| Power yoga, or any of the other multitudinous | | | | receptive to all the lessons life brings to you, and get |
| options, all these practices have very strong roots in | | | | ready to discover yoga's untapped resource-the |
| the west and truly adroit western yogis at their | | | | tremendous power of surrender to a guru. |
| respective helms. | | | | |