YOGA PEEPS

In this episode of Yoga Peeps, Chandra discusses the beginning of her yoga studies, how she began teaching at the prompting of her Guru, remembering your true nature, the connection between mother and Guru and her advice for those beginning to teach.

Lara: Today we’re speaking with Chandra Om. Chandra, tell us a little bit about you, if you would, and where you teach yoga.

Chandra: Well I teach in Raleigh, North Carolina. I do a little bit of traveling so it just depends on where I am, but we have a school here in Raleigh and so this is where I’m primarily based.

Lara: Why do you practice yoga?

Chandra: Because there’s really nothing else to do, no other purpose for being here than the practice of Self-realization. For some reason I had the fortune to meet my Guru relatively early in life. And so I have the fortune now to continue the practice for however many years I have left here in the physical body. So really there’s nothing else to do beyond practice.

Lara: How did you begin practicing? How did you find your Guru?

Chandra: Well, I was actually studying for a few years prior to meeting my Guru. I, on the surface, if you were on the outside looking in, everything seemed wonderful with regards to my life, you understand, from outward appearances. And I should have been very happy I guess, but I was not. And I couldn’t, didn’t really know what I was looking for or what I was searching for, but I knew that I was not content inside. I knew that I had achieved in the physical realm almost everything that I had thought earlier in life would bring me happiness. And so that was a blessing because it allowed me to realize that the answers did not lie in the material realm or material objects or in sense objects.

And so someone mentioned the practice of yoga to me. A friend. I was curious though I knew absolutely nothing about it. And I thought, well I’ll go and I’ll see what’s happening and I went to a class. And I had the fortune to be under, even in the first class I was in, to be under a true yogi. A true yoga teacher. And was transformed from the first class. The next day I began a daily practice. Though I am certain I didn’t know too much of what I was doing. I knew that I felt incredibly changed and that something had sparked and awoke and that it did something nothing else in my experience in the years prior in this life had ever stirred within me. And then a few years later I met my Guru…I had continued to practice under the teacher I had taken the first class with; her name was Leila Stenberg and she was a phenomenal teacher- a Kundalini teacher trained by Yogi Bhajan.

I studied with her several years, and then a few years went by and I met my Guru. And from the moment that I met him, the moment that I stepped into his yoga school and he spoke to me, I knew that I had finally come home. I knew that what I had been praying for had finally come to fruition. Because while I had been studying and studying seriously I knew that I had not found my Guru and I knew that I wanted to study under a Guru. I knew that I wanted the formal practice of studentship. I didn’t know what form that would take because I am a westerner by birth; I was born in Florida, reared in New York, so the concept of Guru was not something that I grew up with. And so I just knew that I wanted to study Self-realization and that I believed in the science of yoga, and that I had not found the teacher that I knew would bring me to the goal of Self-realization. So I had been praying for that in all of my years of study. That one day I would meet the one that would change everything for me and that I could begin to study at the level that I believed was possible. And then that first day from the moment that I met my Guru, everything changed. And I never saw another teacher after that. I never listened to another person after that. I solely and completely surrendered myself to his guidance and his molding and teaching and love and it was beyond anything that I could have imagined in those years when I was praying so sincerely for a teacher.

Lara: When were you called to teach yourself? When did you feel the calling to start sharing what you had learned?

Chandra: When he instructed me to. When he said to me it’s time to begin to initiate others, it’s time to begin to teach others what you have been taught because you … I’m giving you my blessing now and it was not that way with all of the practices. Because my Guru is a traditional yogi and so traditionally as the disciple or student is ready, then the Guru merely instructs them, “Well, you have a mastery over that breathing, now you may go ahead and instruct others.” “You have a mastery over that posture, now you may begin to instruct it.” “You have a mastery over that mantra,” and so on. So that is the way that my Guru instructed me or trained me, was just through my own study with him.

He was able to see everything- things that were not even obvious to me. And he could see as I was progressing, if I was progressing, when I was purified enough in his Divine eyes to ordain me to teach and then he would simply say, “Well, you may go ahead and begin to instruct some postures now. Why don’t you begin with the basic postures.” And then I would do a little beginning yoga , teach some beginning classes or beginning postures to students. Then he would add a few more things to it and say, “Well I think youmay be ready to teach some of the mantras now,” or some of the breathings. It would progress as the years went by. He would add things onto it until I was just in it. Just teaching full time, constantly and had permission to teach the more advanced practices.

Lara: Were you making a living by teaching yoga at this time?

Chandra: Making a living?

Lara: Being able to clothe yourself, feed yourself and sleep somewhere safe.

Chandra: Oh yes. Well I was very fortunate because as I said I had… I had been successful in the material world in my very early twenties. And so I was not wealthy or rich at all, but I did not have basic monetary concerns to care for clothing and a roof over my head and things. And so when I began to teach I did just what the Guru said. I taught only to cover all the basic needs. Only accepted that much payment from students, never more than that. Never more than what was required to cover basic needs. So yes, I was very fortunate that everything has always been covered for me- even from birth. From having parents that could care for me properly. I’ve never gone without anything.

Lara: So with respect to teaching, what’s the best thing you find about teaching yoga?

Chandra: The best thing about teaching. The best thing about teaching is, for me, is the awakening of consciousness in thousands of people. It’s truly, there is no other purpose for being here. And I know what I’m saying. I’m not saying that lightly in that there is no other purpose for being here than Self-realization. Than to discover your true nature. Anyone’s. Any individual’s true nature. That you are not the body, you are not the mind. You are not the ego. You’re not identified with name and form. That you are not the name and form. That there is a true reflection of God dwelling behind all the masks in the material world. The masks of male and female. The mask of age. The mask of social status. The mask of physical characteristics, of desires and cravings, and sense attraction. That you are already perfect. Deep within when all of that goes away, that you are already perfect within. Every individual. Every living being is made in the image of God. And so through the masters who have given us the science of yoga and a path to follow, we have this science that we can employ for the awakening of that consciousness. And as you see students discovering that- that they are simply coming home, there’s noacquiring of anything. There is never a student that needs to acquire anything within the science of yoga. You are merely revealing what is already within.

Lara: What came to me while you were speaking in reference to this was I just recently had a son. He’s 1 year old now. And I remember people saying, “Oh congratulations,” “He’s beautiful,” or saying wonderful things about him. I would think the same thing, “Yes, he is beautiful, but interesting that you think it’s me that did that.” I sort of always had this sense that I’m in service to him and he’s just a life force here and I’m simply here to guide him but he’s definitely his own person. So it’s funny when people say that to me. I almost feel like he is beautiful, rather than it’s something that I did. I sort of feel like it has nothing to do with me. It has to do with his karma or story. And I’m simply a vessel and a guide and that’s it.

Chandra: But you have your karma with him also. You and the daddy, the mommy and daddy have their own individual karmas with the child as well. And the mother is the first Guru. That is what the science, the classical yoga always teaches. The mother is the one who forms all of the earliest opinions within the child. Of course like you said, the child comes in with their own temperament, and their own karma, and their own predisposition. But the mother can mold the child. If the mother is tender, the child will be tender. Or the child will be more likely to have that temperament. If the mother is calm and the home is harmonious, then the child will be harmonious and thus the child will be a more productive and content member of society, because they will have a solid and strong loving upbringing to mold their character. Just like a Guru. Just like the ashram. The Guru never sends you out of the ashram until you are not going to create chaos in society. Until you can really be, they take care of you, they mother you. There’s a great saint named Neem Karoli Baba who used to always say that a mother’s love is so much like God’s because a mother is so forgiving. A mother always forgives whatever happens- just like God.

Lara: And what advice would you have for yoga teachers who are just beginning to teach?

Chandra: Stay clean. Stay clean and stay humble and stay sweet. Stay sweet and stay close to God and remember that just like a mother, just like a father just like any roles that we play, that you are not the teacher. God is the teacher. You are just acting the teacher. You are just the representative of God. And it’s very easy to get lost in the identifications of the material world. It’s very easy to get lost in the identification of being a teacher or being anything. But my strongest advice would be to stay clean. To stay rooted in yama and niyama. And to never allow the ego to trick you into thinking that you are anything more than a servant for God.

Lara: Speaking of the yamas and niyamas, which ones are you most involved with these days?

Chandra: It depends. Which day? It depends which day you ask me. It depends what state the mind is in, if there’s something disturbing… Of course I am always trying to practice ahimsa. I am always trying to practice the first step of yoga. I have not mastered it yet. So everyday I just keep trying and trying to create no harm anywhere, you understand? Not just physically, but mentally also. Never create any harm. And then hopefully one day I maybe will have some success in being perfected in ahimsa, but not yet.

But I think the most important of all yama and niyama is the culmination, the Ishvara Pranidana- that one must always surrender themselves to the Lord. To what we were just speaking about- to the remembrance of your true nature. To the remembrance that God is passing through each of us. Our role is to remove the ego, so that movement of the divine may be unobstructed. But for me personally, even though of course you always try to work in conjunction with all the yamas and niyamas- you don’t wait for one of them to be mastered to move on to the others- but for me, I have not mastered any of them. I’m just trying to concentrate on ahimsa.

Lara: Let’s talk a little bit about asana for a second. So I’m wondering how you keep asana fresh for you and what pose you struggle with?

Chandra: How to keep asana fresh?

Lara: Yes, for yourself especially if you’ve been practicing 20 years or more. I can assume that after awhile you may- some part of your mind might say, “I’ve done this before,” or perhaps there is something more. Or your body starts to ask for something more. And you try, not necessarily to achieve, but sort of move on…

Chandra: You ask good questions. Because most people they don’t think about things like that when they’re looking from the outside. They always think they must… If you’re living yoga or you’re a yoga teacher or something that you must just live in some state of ecstasy or something, but the truth is that sometimes you get tired of doing postures or doing your spiritual practices. Of course within you never get tired, but the mind… you said it the perfect way.

I think the best for me- for me personally, is that I always remember what my Guru told me about – that you do all the practices because they have to be done. You do not do them- any aspect of practice, including asana, with the expectation of fruit. You’re never striving for any results, as the Bhagavad Gita teaches. That if you’re doing a posture, you’re doing it for the Lord. You’re not doing it for ego gratification. You’re not even doing it to physically feel better. You’re doing it because it has to be done. You’re doing it to uphold dharma- the quality of dharma. You’re doing it because you are upholding your piece of the eternal dharma that keeps creation honorable and that goes for all aspects of the practice of yoga. But because you asked about asana, there are days I will tell you that I feel a pain here or an ache here or I just feel I’m tired of moving, I don’t want to do this today. But I just think about the Guru and I remember all the times he did not feel well. All the times that he was a little under the weather. Or that he had taught four classes earlier that day or one thing or another. And he was always steady. He always came. He always taught.

Years and years ago my Guru was, of course he was teaching for many years. One day he broke his leg. One day he was doing something and he broke his leg and he was not going to do anything about it. But then some people- some of the students got concerned and they brought him to the emergency room to have the bone set and they set the bone- you know they do the cast and everything and he left and he thought “I have to teach class tonight.” And he tried to see if he could move with the cast on. But he couldn’t. He couldn’t demonstrate the postures. So he broke the cast off and went and taught the class that evening. And he never said a word. He didn’t go into class and tell anyone. None of us found out about this until years later. You do it because it has to be done.

So whenever the mind is ever telling me, “Well look, you’re tired,” or “You’re not feeling too well,” or “You have a pain here,” or “You did enough or this and that or something,” I, you see, I have the amazing fortune to have a Guru that I can always look to as a living example of how to mold my life. An example to follow. A living example to look to because I have all of these years of examples of different things. Whatever I’m passing through. Whatever the mind may be passing through, if a doubt comes in or something, I can always think back and find an example of experiences with the Guru and then think, “Well you think you have it bad, remember what the Guru passed through? It’s time to get started now. Let’s go.” And that always does it. Always, no matter what is going on. The mind can never trick me with her games or nonsense or anything. So I don’t know if that is a good enough answer or not to the question but that is the best way for me personally that I know to keep the asana fresh.

Lara: What is your meditation practice? Does it follow asana or is it somehow connected with it?

Chandra: For me personally, I think that it is in conjunction with all of the other practices. But earlier on, then the Guru did instruct me to have a formal meditation practice that was separate from asana. I do think that is the best way to begin to practice. That it is best if it is kept separate initially, or not “kept separate” but it is sometimes easier to concentrate on one aspect of the practice individually. But eventually they are intermingled and then everything becomes a meditation. And so for me it is in conjunction.

Lara: What books do you love? Or what books would you recommend everybody read? Maybe your top three books.

Chandra: Books for a yogi, right? Or for anyone?

Lara: For anyone or for anything. Just three you think that all people would benefit from reading.

Chandra: The Bhagavad GIta, the Yoga Sutra of Patanjali and Autobiography of a Yogi

Lara: Awesome. If you had a huge audience, what would you teach or share with them.

Chandra: That you are already perfect. That God is dwelling within you and that you may earlier in life or in the present moment or in the future may have glimpses into that. But they are very often mental abstract concepts like, “Well, we are all one,” or that I know that, “God is part of all of creation.” But those are all mental ideas or concepts. And that is a much different experience than direct perception- than when you actually realize through inward contemplation and ignition that you are truly one with God; beyond a mental idea but through directly realizing that through your own personal experience. That is the gift and the reality that awaits you through the practice of yoga. That it is far beyond the postures, far beyond the breathing, far beyond mind control, far beyond mantra, far beyond yama and niyama, far beyond any of the individual aspects of practice or what we may in the more modern climate of yoga think to be the practice of yoga. That it is truly a doorway into the supreme realm of God and that that exists within you. That you do not need to acquire anything outside of you and that anyone can experience it. It is not for any special group of people. That it is available to everyone. And that it takes work and takes intense concentration and determination and steady practice but that anyone can achieve it.

Lara: So sometimes I get confused with Self-realization and sort of oneness. So maybe you can explain how that is different. It seems like when you are Self-realized then you know you are not separate from God and that you are basically liberated in this life. Then you have freedom. You experience freedom from the ego, from your mind. But why would people call it “self”realized or self-realization?

Chandra: Meaning because “self” implies individuality? Is that right?

Lara: Yeah, I guess. I think I would call it oneness-realized or God-realized or freedom-realized. Unless you’re sort of using “self” to mean the greater self? Like all self.

Chandra: Well, of course, yes. See- you answer your own question! That’s why sometimes in the scriptures you see the “Self” is written with a capital S and then other times with a lower case s. Whenever you have the smaller one, it means we are identified with the personal self. The ego. With the Chandra. The Lara. The this one the that one. The individual self. The Self- there is no individual Self- there is one Self. One Source, one God, and that is always with a capital S. So Self-realization is the realization of your union with not only God but with all creation- all aspects of creation in the multiplicity of universes.

Lara: And so you have a yoga school there in Raleigh, North Carolina. And do you have teacher trainings coming up or are you currently in a teacher training?

Chandra: Actually we do not run formal teacher training programs. We run yoga development programs so the teachers, those that come do come, many of them, because some day they aspire to be yoga teachers. So in that sense we do train them. There’s no formal… the programs that we run, there is no set graduation date. Some students come and they study for a year or two and because of their depth of practice and their concentration, they are ordained to teach certain aspects or many aspects of the practice. And then others, they may have no desire to teach but merely to come and study and so they come and study for however long they like. And we do run one program a year that is a 250 hour yoga development program that is like an introductory course and we are in the middle of one of those now. In fact they are at the school right now and it’s in the middle of one of their sessions. I am going there at 5:30 to teach the Maha Sadhana practice, but they are- we are in the middle of it right now and they will go through I believe January or February with the formal training and then they have their internship period afterwards. Then of course we have lots of classes and other things that they – that we offer and other things that people come from everywhere to study and things. Some longer than others.

Lara: So the public would come to study as well then?

Chandra: Oh yes. We just have classes where people can come. The whole- anyone can come from around the world. People come from everywhere, not just for the trainings and the formal courses but even just to attend weekly classes with the instructors. So yes it’s open to anyone.

Lara: And that’s, if anyone wants to learn anymore about that, it’s at ncschoolofyoga.com. So you can visit North Carolina School of Yoga there and learn more about the programs offered and the classes. And it’s been such a pleasure speaking with you today, Chandra. Thank you very much.

Chandra: Oh you’re very welcome. I’m honored that you would even want to speak with me. Thank you very much. Where do you live?

Lara: Right now I’m in Santa Barbara, California.

Chandra: Santa Barbara, California… well, you must have a good teacher because you ask very good questions. And you have a very sweet vibration. You seem very kind.

Lara: Thank you. That’s very sweet to hear you say that. Many thanks, Chandra. Have a beautiful day and namaste.

Chandra: And you too, Lara. Om Shanti