Discussion on real yoga and Sikhi - GB Yoga Fest 2016 - Q&A #5

yogis in those days are very different

to what we see what you call Yogi

now and also nowadays yoga is like

yoga's been divorced from the meaning of

the word the meaning of the word means

Union with God is it but now it's become

a physical exercise thing so people are

doing yoga in gyms

like after their workout they'll do half

an hour yoga and it's purely about

stretching uh and you know just uh and

then there might be even 2 minutes of

meditation or something the rest of it

it's about stretching um and becoming

more Supple and flexible so it's not

become yoga anymore you know uh I don't

know what you call it but according to

the the meaning of the word yoga it's

not yoga because yoga was always a means

to an end and um I'll tell you example

yeah I was the plane I went to Russia

recently so on the plane and the lady

sitting next to me was doing Ashtanga

Yoga it's quite a hard yoga from what I

understand here and uh she was an expert

in it and she was teaching it in um

Russia as well she was Russian

background but living here in London so

anyway she's aanga yoga expert sitting

next to me on the plane we were chatting

about religion she wasn't Pro religion

let's just face it that way let's put it

simp simplify she was she was sort of

not negative I talked about the seek

beliefs she goes I agree with everything

everything you're saying it makes

perfect sense it's just that I don't

like religion I said okay fair enough

it's your choice but then um she uh she

said something quite interesting um I

said to her the first time I experienced

the Divine was just by chanting God's

name and at that time I I basically just

recently stopped drinking um you know

just recently stopped doing a lot of

negative

things and she was surprised you know I

I literally just sat down with some

people they had a guitar and they

started singing Wahu and the first time

my life I ever did it and I had an

amazing experience and I was like what

was that you know she was surprised she

said it took me years of asanga yoga to

get to that level to have that

experience so so in that way you could

say that the guru gives us a fast

forward button yeah God's name that's

why yoga is so powerful because it takes

exactly they doing exercises while

reciting B yeah that's why it's so

powerful so if it was just the exercises

you wouldn't get that experience from it

whatsoever yeah so I think that's where

Kun Yogo is um is being successful in

changing certain people's lives because

it gives people that gbani aspect and

the

chanting obviously you don't have to go

through Kini yoga to get the same Bliss

you can get from gbani and

but it's not a bad thing either to do it

you know the stretching and everything

else yeah just as long as you understand

one bits for the physical body one bit

for the soul right and they can work in

tandem you could just as much be a

longdistance runner or a swimmer and get

fit or you could become good at

stretching and then you could do all

that but if you're if you're not

experiencing that Bliss of meditation

and then you're missing out on the main

part of life that's the key thing is a

stress to people that without that Bliss

you haven't made it you're

nobody um within when I say nobody it

means you actually missed the main

purpose of your life and you have to

come back this is a thing that sometimes

within the yoga world the world today of

yoga is not stressed so you could become

an expert

Yogi right but you might have zero

spirituality you might still be full of

anger and pride and greed

yeah but you just physically are able to

do all these poses and hold them for so

long Etc yeah but that's not really you

know that's not the purpose of life

purpose of life is to is to start to

have that communion that Divine

experience um and you could B basically

you could be the most inflexible person

and it still wouldn't matter if you

could get that experience or you could

be the most flexible person and it again

wouldn't matter because you didn't have

that experience or you could be the best

Yogi and have that experience and that's

perfect if you're a yogi that

experiences your Consciousness merging

with the Creator then you're the right

kind of Yogi for the

guru yeah if you're just somebody who's

um physically very fit or whatever and

you've got that Pride you can hold a

pose for that long other people can't

that's nothing for the guru it's so so

the guru's way is very much about that

Union yeah and the word comes up there a

sh

says yeah what that means is uh you will

get that yog by singing K it's hard to

believe that sometimes that when you s

sitting there just singing some hymns

you can experience the most powerful

thing there is yeah it seems so simple

isn't it just sitting around singing But

Gan is so powerful you know it's changed

changed my life um and this this is what

the guru brings to us is this really

simple way of Experiencing God you

know but obviously they also give it the

sublime form of R which is quite hard to

learn um and become an expert in so

there's always you know things to learn

with the sick faith that involve a lot

of practice a lot of hard work you know

meditation aside that's quite hard

anyway but actually the understand the

scripture um the um the music you know

whether it's the drums whether it's the

classical instruments it's just skills

you can learn from a young age that keep

you involved and it's infinite in that

sense so kids can always it's not like

it stops you can keep on learning you

know you can become an expert in one

thing you still got loads more to learn

so keeps you intellectually engaged as

well keeping keeping something if there

was a philosophy that didn't have an

intellectual element then people would

get bored and stop at some

point did that help so we agree on that

we we agree

basically

yeah but you see remember just to

reiterate yeah I don't want to leave CU

I'll finish off in a minute just to

reiterate the connection of our

Consciousness with the universal

Consciousness the biggest

barrier is our ego and by ego I don't

mean our pride is deeper it's the sense

of I

me of being separate of being yourself

so giving up that sense of being giving

up that sense of valuing your own

opinion the giving up that sense of

eyess that's the hardest that's the

hardest thing we can do give up

ourselves

yeah um and the

guru he is the the he is able to give up

ourselves to the

guru you know the more you read about

them the more you learn about them the

more you fall in love and the more

you're like wow wuru yeah it's like vuru

and then you just think I can surrender

to this person this person is perfect

did nothing to hold me back so the guru

reflects that he allows us to do that

[Music]

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