From the Desk of Shiv Rishi
Hari Om
Since I started the basic course module, I’ve been wondering what is the aim of this course & what are the benefits that one can get?
The greatest challenge that most adults face today is that they are unable to continue regular practice, until the benefits of practices start manifesting.
Most of the organizations have been trying to keep the training very interesting, they were continuously inventing innovative ways to share their wisdom. However the mind that ever craves for variety respond in no better a way!
Unless one is intellectually convinced, has a clear & practical approach to bringing regularity the fate of the learning would be the same.
There are of course few people who because of destiny or due to their intrinsic nature were able to become regular with practice & start enjoying the benefits of the learning. This was common to any field for that matter.
We conduct classes only once a week & ask the students to find the time & space to practice whatever little they have learnt in a weekly class from SYC – This in fact is the aim of the basic course-1.
The aim of this course is to help the aspirant know how to find time and practice yoga regularly! At the end of this course the participant would have learnt to allocate time every day, become regular and become
INDEPENDENT-REGULAR-PRACTITIONER of YOGA
I started yoga practice in 1988, I was 20 when I started, now I am 43 years old(2012) & have been practicing for almost 24 years.
Vethathri Maharishi had appointed me as a teacher of Simplified Kundalini Yoga (SKY) in 1993with the title “Arul Nidhi”.
Those days after practicing yoga for about five years I was too eager & enthusiastic to introduce this wonderful boon to all my friends & contacts. On every Sunday I used to borrow my father’s car. Squeeze as many friends into the car & take them all to WCSC at Second Seaward Road, Thiruvanmiyur.
I continued to agressively introduce whatever yoga I had experienced to all the people known to me. It was a very fulfilling hobby. In fact in 1993 with the blessings of Vethathri Maharishi, I even started a meditation centre, in Triplicane, Chennai.
In about ten years from 1993 to 2002, I would have introduced at least about 500 people each year to SKY. However when I met them again after couple of years I was shocked to know that most of them about 90% had given up practicing. This was a very humbling realization to me.
“It does not really matter how many people one is able to introduce to yoga, What really matters is a good teacher should have a method by which he/she will be able to motivate their students to regularly practice & continue their practice.”
“I decided to change my approach of teaching. I was convinced that numbers do not matter, so I stopped taking any effort to invite or convince anyone to pursue yoga”
Hence at Satyananda Yoga Centre, Triplicane, I decided that there will be a connection period spread over ten weeks, which will be called as the Prathama Shibiram – 1.
When someone approaches Satyananda Yoga Centre, we decided that we will throw light and draw their attention to discover the need to first of all find the time in their daily life and space in their home or elsewhere where they can be by themselves and practice yoga for the duration of time that they plan to invest every day for self development & self attunement.We decided that we will not promise any change or benefit for attracting anyone for attending the Satyananda Yoga courses offered by SYC, Triplicane, Chennai. Instead we decided that the aim of a student of yoga will be to find the time & space to become regular with the practices of yoga within the period of ten weeks, over which the course is spread.
I had however decided that if anyone approached me for learning , I would check whether they are really keen to learn yoga & if I was convinced that they were, then I put my entire life into sharing what I knew with them. This has become the attitude of Satyananda Yoga Centre-Triplicane with regards to its approach to teaching.