Do the Math: Good Health is a Triple Equilibrium

by Rutu Chaudhari

When it comes to health, as the Mother says, "the combinations are innumerable." The mental, vital and physical conditions must all be addressed because what shows up on the surface as an ailment is always an indication of a much deeper discord.

Yoga is an exploration, discovery and fulfillment of your dharma, your true purpose. That’s why I do yoga. I want to live authentically. That’s why I teach yoga. Imagine a community of people that are all doing what they love, sharing their art in the world, resonating gratitude and being of value - whose yoga practice serves to increases their productivity rather than act as a means to release the stress of a life without purpose.

Sure, it starts with unwinding the perceived stress we carry. We have stress because we ignore and numb the inner voice of truth, and when we ignore long enough, “problems” start to arise. What manifests on the surface as pain, injury or disease is the psychic expressing, through the many different sheaths of our being: the mental, vital and ultimately, the physical, this is not why you were born. Find yourself! That inner voice of purpose doesn’t go away and thank god it doesn’t! The soul’s voice is soft and strong, guiding us towards a life of joy.  We just have to get quiet enough to listen and courageous enough to act on the truth we hear.

I’m ok with you coming to the studio to stretch your hamstrings, but this is not a gymnastics class.  If you’re interested in true yoga, you’re invested in living your dharma.  All life is yoga!

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.

The Laws of Successful Business According to The Mother

by Rutu Chaudhari

As many of you know, the studio is going through some changes and the past several months have been challenging. I've done some serious soul-searching and made some hard decisions. When I first opened the studio, I read information The Mother wrote about business and management. I didn't entirely understand what she was talking about then. Now, four years into running a studio, it feels like lightbulbs are going off.

As with all of The Mother's writing, I will read this a year from now, ten years from now, and it will mean something very different than it does in this moment. Truth evolves as you do, and I'm so grateful for that and I'm grateful for this community. I can be candid and vulnerable and I feel supported.

1. Master Your Nature 2. Remember that the purpose of business is to increase splendor. 3. Reflect deeply on what you are creating in business and why you are creating it.  4. Strategize (maneuver your company through external forces) as a short-term approach to business. 5. Re-engineer(balance the internal forces of the company through alignment with external forces) as a mid-term approach to business. 6. Individualize (enhance the growth and welfare of the individual) as a long-term approach to business. 7. Focus on the long-term as well as the short-term. 8. Treat all with whom you interact as part of yourself and seek the best for all involved parties. 9. Seek beneath the surface to discover what humanity needs to grow. 10. Take time in introspection and receptive silence. 11. Coordinate around a central theme. 12. Know your customer directly.

"Progress lies in a normal but progressive equilibrium, periods of assimilation - reception, assimilation - and periods of expenditure, and knowing how to balance the two, and alternate them in a rhythm which is your personal one." - The Mother

Who Do You Listen to? Finding My Yoga Teacher Part III

by Rutu Chaudhari

Who do you listen to? Have you ever asked yourself that? Because the teachers/mentors/coaches you listen to effect how you progress in your craft.

We are influenced by the people we surround ourselves with, especially those we call teachers. I think it is one of the most important questions a student asks his/herself. How do I know that the person I am listening to is an appropriate guide for me? What qualities matter to me in the person I seek teachings from? Two qualities are worth consideration:

 1. Listen to people who have what you want.

 This one seems like a no brainer. If I want to be a great yoga teacher, obviously I want to study with the top teachers in the field. So what does a great teacher have that I want? When I first began studying with Aadil, his knowledge base is what struck me. It satisfied my mind so completely. He is brilliant. Along with a deep understanding of the yogic practices, anatomy and philosophy, he’s studied law, physics, naturopathy, Ayurveda, operatic singing, flower arrangement, he’s a lover of poetry, he’s a public speaker…There are many surface reasons that one would want to study with Aadil. He appeases the insatiable need of the mind to gather new information. That turned into an understanding that a good teacher is always learning, always studying.

As long as I’ve known Aadil, he is seeking out the best teachers in the field he is studying at the time. He always has mentors and he’s always a student. I’ve met teachers who stop studying after they receive their 200 hour certification, so it’s refreshing to work with someone that has that urge and willingness to a grow as a constant aspiration 35 years into teaching.

And that leads me to what this quality suggests. Integrity. If you want to be a good teacher, you must be a good student. Integrity. This has always been very important to me. I aspire for integrity in my teaching and life.

What is integrity?

Aadil describes integrity as alignment-an "alignment of my thoughts and beliefs with my words and actions." As a teacher it means that I only teach what I practice. And at our studio we teach that ‘all life is yoga’. To have integrity in yoga is to have integrity in life, in everything. This sort of alignment is the essence of why I do yoga. To be sincere, to be authentic is the aim of yoga. Fortunately I have teachers to support me along the way. Learning from teachers that have what you want only accelerates the process. It’s the fastest way to evolve.

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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.

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