The "How" Is Irrelevant: Finding My Yoga Teacher Part II

by Rutu Chaudhari

The yogic path has been one of the most daunting and also, one of the most rewarding endeavors of my life.  It’s a grueling dance of commitment, effort and faith.

Early on, at the onset of my pursuit for a yoga teacher, I was able to grasp the power of commitment.  I didn’t know anything about Aadil Palkhivala; I had read a few of his articles in Yoga Journal Magazine, but I never actually studied with him. I had no idea what sort of individual he was or what he was offering as yoga.  When I examined his training, I was more or less awe struck.  First of all, it was a 2,000 hour certification.  What?  The most I’d heard of up until then was 500 hours.  This alone was intriguing.

As I read on, I learned that his wife, Savitri, was a meditation master who taught an accessible, heart opening meditation program that was at the core of the Purna Yoga curriculum.  I didn’t realize how much I was interested in meditation until I read about Savitri’s experience and dedication to knowing herself and embodying her truth.  That’s when I truly felt that this was the program for me. I didn’t know these people but something in me said, ‘YES , I’m definitely doing this!’

Then I realized that the training was in Washington State...that’s on the other side of the country.  Nah, I don’t think I am gonna be able to do this program.  Then I scrolled down and saw the price!  Yeah, I’m definitely not doing this training!

The How! How can I make this happen?  How will I afford this?  How can I take that much time off, etc? The How is a dream killer. Whenever I thought about how I could possibly make this happen I just felt discouraged, dispirited and stifled.

For some reason, in spite of my disheartened state, I made the decision that I have to do this program. These are the teachers I want to study with since this was the only yoga teacher training out there calling me.  The result of this decision is what taught me one of the most profound and important truths of being an artist and having dreams. The How is irrelevant.  The pursuit of my aspiration has nothing to do with how I’m going to actually make it happen.  The How is a result of my faith and commitment.  The How unfolds in a way that my mind could never conceive.  So why bother using the mind to focus on the how? Just focus on the dream.

The How is irrelevant.  What a beautiful lesson to start me off on my journey into Purna Yoga.  A journey, I quickly learned, is a study with true masters.  Each moment with Aadil and Savitri is a transmission.  Even in the process of deciding to study with them, I experienced their commitment and faith transmitting through me.

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Check back soon for the next chapter of Rutu's journey. To read Part I, please click here.

Rutu Chaudhari is a certified Purna Yoga teacher who holds a 2,000-hour certification. Rutu assists teacher trainings, yoga workshops and conferences with Aadil Palkhivala.  She is the Director of the College of Purna Yoga in Atlanta and conducts teacher trainings at her thriving studio, All Life is Yoga.

Rutu is a shining example of the discipline and love for yoga. She sincerely lives her yoga and her radiance and light shine from the inside out. Rutu offers an abounding knowledge of alignment and anatomy, meditation, practical application of yogic philosophy and nutrition and lifestyle from Ayurveda, Chinese and Western traditions. She is also a leading teacher of yoga therapeutics.

To subscribe to this blog so that you receive all future updates, please see the link on the right side of this page.

Finding My Yoga Teacher

by Rutu Chaudhari

After about four years into teaching I began to feel a bit stuck. I had studied yoga a lot on my own and some with teachers from many disciplines, mainly Bikram, Vinyasa, Iyengar, Baron Baptiste.  I enjoyed many things about each system but I left most classes feeling like there has to be more to this. I began to realize that I wanted a sounding board, a teacher, a guru, if you will.  Coming from India, the notion that you learn from a master for a long while was not foreign to me, but difficult to experience in the West.

So one day, at a workshop with a very prominent yoga teacher, I presented this yearning for guidance.  I asked about continuing education and wanting a genuine experience of connection with a teacher.  Someone that could be with me through the process.  Someone I could regularly approach to share my challenges and insights with.  This yoga thing was becoming bigger and bigger the longer I taught.  Even four years in I realized that this is big.  This is important.  I am responsible for imparting an experience and information that can be of value and I don't want to mess this up.  I need to study with a master!

Now this is a loaded topic. We have seen again and again “masters” who fall from grace and we question the validity of the relationship between a student and a teacher.  Can I trust someone as deeply as it is necessary to to guide me in the most subtle practice of all, the quest for self awareness?  The journey into my own soul?

The prominent teacher that I expressed my yearning for a teacher to said with confidence and maybe even relief that, ‘that doesn’t exist here in the West or really in the modern yoga culture at all’.

I’m glad he was wrong. ______________________________________________________________________

Check back soon for the next chapter of Rutu's journey.

Rutu Chaudhari is a certified Purna Yoga teacher who holds a 2,000-hour certification. Rutu assists teacher trainings, yoga workshops and conferences with Aadil Palkhivala.  She is the Director of the College of Purna Yoga in Atlanta and conducts teacher trainings at her thriving studio, All Life is Yoga.

Rutu is a shining example of the discipline and love for yoga. She sincerely lives her yoga and her radiance and light shine from the inside out. Rutu offers an abounding knowledge of alignment and anatomy, meditation, practical application of yogic philosophy and nutrition and lifestyle from Ayurveda, Chinese and Western traditions. She is also a leading teacher of yoga therapeutics.

To subscribe to this blog so that you receive all future updates, please see the link on the right side of this page.

Yoga Therapy Testimonial

"I was encouraged to try yoga by the neurologist who treats me for Parkinson’s disease, and I guess that is what might make my perspective different from that of many of your other students.  As a Parkinson’s patient, I experience the increasing loss of natural, involuntary muscle function.  Yoga helps me compensate using awareness and intention. One key aspect is symmetry.  For now, my symptoms manifest almost exclusively on the left side of my body.  The right arm and leg pick up the burden, which means I do everything crookedly.  This gives me pains and strains, and of course makes the left side weaker and even less functional.

In yoga everything we do is balanced.  We pay attention to posture and alignment and we work both sides of the body equally.  I am regaining strength and flexibility on my left side.  Equally important, I’m becoming much more aware of the issue and can decide to include my left side even when it doesn’t volunteer.

Another key skill is selective relaxation.  I knew that with Parkinson’s the muscles can be slow to respond to commands.  I didn’t realize that, once engaged, the muscles are reluctant to let go. Many times a day I become aware that my left hand is clenched or pressed painfully into the edge of my desk.  Anything involving a lot of movement can get me pretty scrunched up.

With our yoga postures, the norm is to isolate and work specific areas while consciously relaxing everything else.  As I get better at this I find a lot of use for it in daily living.  Tense neck and shoulders usually don’t add much to a phone call.  Now I am more likely to notice and make adjustments.

A special case is walking.  I thought I had walking nailed sixty years ago, but not lately.  Walking has become a very intentional process for me.  From my yoga instruction I now have a mental checklist of movements and posture points that I keep running through all the time I’m walking.  Hopefully with practice this will require less attention and be more consistently successful, because walking had become frustrating, exhausting, and unstable.

Beyond the Parkinson’s perspective, I share the benefits that all yoga students receive to some degree including strength, flexibility, mobility, balance, and conditioning.  The regular lessons and home practice are also important as an affirmation of the desire for well being and the intention to live accordingly.

Which sort of brings us to the meditation part.

I am sure that I have experienced only the crudest beginnings of what meditation has to offer, and for now that is all I aspire to.  I have limited interest in personal growth and transformation, and no interest in a spiritual quest of any kind.  Regardless, meditation is important to my practice.  I know this because I have tried leaving it out.

My normal mental state seems to be a multi-layered cacophony of remembered or anticipated interactions and conversations, plans, regrets, and all the rest of it.  The initial centering takes time, but it clears away a lot of that clutter and leaves me aware of myself and my body, on my pad and in the moment, relaxed, alert, and ready to get started.  The bit at the end rounds everything off and confirms what has just been accomplished.  I usually get up content and ready to carry on.

The visualizations we do have a significant physical and mental effect that I don’t examine too closely, but I love my few moments inside my cocoon of white light!  I won’t try too hard to articulate the experience, but I know that I feel calm, self-accepting, and protected.  Ooooooommmm."

Namaste, Richard