Kali Om - Beyond the Mat: Dont Just Do Yoga—Live It

Dont Just Do YogaLive It

By Kali Om

BEYOND THE MAT
Dont Just Do YogaLive It
By Kali Om

Cover Design by Balogun Joy and Takao Makihara
Interior Design by Takao Makihara
Author Photo: Blair Holmes

Copyright 2018 by Kali Om. This is a compilation of Beyond the Mat columns by Yogi Kali Om published in Yoga Chicago magazine between 2007 and 2018. All rights reserved. This book or any portion thereof may not be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, whether electronic, photocopying, recording, or otherwise without the prior written permission of the copyright owner, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.

This book is not intended to be a substitute for the medical advice of a licensed physician. The reader should consult with their doctor in any matters relating to their physical and mental health.

Printed in the United States of America
First Printing, 2018

Print edition: ISBN 978-1-7320563-0-5
eBook edition: ISBN 978-1-7320563-1-2
Library of Congress Control Number: 2018902685

Satya Yoga and Kali Om | www.yogikaliom.com

To Sri Dharma Mittra
and all spiritual preceptors

Acknowledgments

With deep gratitude to Sri Dharma Mittra, Eva Grubler Ismrittee Devi Om, Chandra Om, Devdutt Shastri, Gurudev, Carol Ann Marticke, Christian E. Jepsen, Sharon Steffensen and Yoga Chicago magazine, Ellen Bernstein, Takao Makihara, Mel Livatino, Miriam Marticke, my family, Burke & Grey, Richard Handler, Eric Larson, Bill Wyman, Robert Feder, Suddha Weixler, the Jois family, Lino Miele, Nancy Van Kanagan, Parvati Om, Swami Satyapremananda, Shanti Niketan Ashram, Sivananda Yoga Vedanta Centers, Cindy Lawler, Blair Holmes, Amy Krouse Rosenthal, Nathalie Martin, Amy Rome, Raghu Rama, Ralph Hannon, my teachers and students, and Hari Om.

Special thanks to the Ragdale Foundation in Lake Forest, Illinois and the Starry Night Residency Program in Truth or Consequences, New Mexico for the time, space, and vote of confidence in this work. Jai Guru!

Introduction

My teachers often say that yoga is the science of living a healthy and peaceful life. Like a scientist, one takes the information, applies it, and finds out if it works. In my experience, it does; for me, yoga provides the answer to every question and the solution to every problem.

I took my first yoga class at a local YMCA shortly after my mother died of cancer, in 1997. As executor of her estate, I was not getting along with my sibling (or anyone else, for that matter), and I was racked with grief. Still, I had some timeand a lot of unstable energy after caring for herand thought Id give it a try.

That first class changed my life; during it I didnt think about my problems once and marveled at this new sensation. For the first time in my life, I felt real peaceand it lasted afterwards. So I signed up for every class they had.

But it wasnt enough. Consequently, I looked in the phone book and found the N.U. Yoga Center (now called the Chicago Yoga Center). I bought a monthly pass and became hooked on the physicality of Ashtanga, a traditional and challenging system from India that appealed to my past as a triathlete and pulled me right into the present. I was in class every daysometimes twice a day, and signed up for every workshop they offered.

Within a year, one of my teachers, Eric Powell, told me he was moving away and urged me to learn how to teach and take over his classes. I refused, insisting that I was happy being a student. He asked again, and again I folded my arms and said no. The third time he asked, I said Id think about it.

I ended up taking Suddha Weixlers teacher training at N.U. and loved it. At his request, I began teaching my own classes at his studio. More teaching opportunities soon followed. I had to quit my part-time waitressing job but continued to work as a freelance writer.

After studying with many senior Ashtanga teachers and hearing them speak about Pattabhi Jois, the father of Ashtanga yoga, I decided to go to the source, as my mother used to say, and find out for myself. I made my first trip in 2002, not long after 9/11, when India and Pakistan were amassing their troops on the border, preparing for war. I bought an open-ended plane ticket, thinking Id want to turn around and come home as soon as I arrived. Instead, I stayed five months, practicing with 11 other Westerners in a small, sweaty room in Pattabhi Joiss house.

I made four more trips to study with the Jois family in India, chronicling each of them in my, No Sleep Til Mysore diaries in Yoga Chicago magazine. After each trip to India, I would come home to less journalism work and more teaching gigs. I became a full-time yoga instructor in 2004, while continuing to write for Yoga Chicago magazine and take on other occasional writing assignments.

Pattabhi Jois used to tell us to Think God. Be God. But it wasnt until I took my first Life of a Yogi teacher training with Sri Dharma Mittra in 2007 that I understood what he was talking about.

Although called a teacher training, it was really a course in Self-realization. It consisted of 10 intense, 15-hour days of classes at Sri Dharmas cramped old New York City studio and included instruction and practice in the complete yoga system. Each day began with chanting, pranayama (breathwork), and meditation, followed by talks on philosophy as well as instruction in anatomy, diet (vegetarian, mostly raw), kriyas (yoga techniques), Hatha yoga, japa mala (prayer beads), and other yoga practices. It was nothing less than a blueprint for how to live a happy and fulfilling life, and Sri Dharmas bliss, playfulness, awareness, and humility provided a living example of its efficacy. He answered all of the questions Id never been able to articulate, all the while bombarding us with unconditional love.

Over the next several years I ended up traveling to study with him every three months and completing two more teacher trainings with him before I was kindly asked to leave the nest. Along the way, I quit taking antidepressants, received mantra initiation (and my spiritual name), and learned to love myself.

The pieces in this collection come directly from my Beyond the Mat column in Yoga Chicago magazine (2007 to 2018). Much of what I write about is derived from what I learned in the many classes, workshops, retreats, teacher trainings, and one-on-one sessions I had with Sri Dharma; from my spiritual mother, Chandra Om; from my other teachers and trainings; and from my own experience. Many of the topics were sparked by my own struggles trying to live a yogic life in a world that appears to reward exactly the opposite; the questions and concerns of my students were also an important source of material. I think of these columns as love lettersespecially the more recent ones.

This collection is for anyone who wants to explore yoga in a way that goes beyond the obvious health benefits of Hatha yoga poses, or asana . Yogas universal and inclusive spiritual underpinnings are often missing from mainstream American yoga instruction, when, in fact, the poses are one small part of a larger system that outlines how to live a peaceful and healthy life (and can ultimately lead to enlightenment). On the other hand, classical Raja yoga and related systemson which I have focused my studies and writingenable one to delve into them as deeply as one wishes (or is ready for) and be rewarded with everything from a healthy body and calm mind to Self-realization.

What I love most about what I have learned from my study of yoga is how practical and logical it is. It doesnt rely on blind faith but on direct, practical experience; the ancient yogis invited their students to try these things out for themselves, and see if they worked.