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HOW I’VE PRACTICED YOGA – THEN AND NOW
Ted Srinathadas Czukor
October 23, 2005

In the thirty-five years I have spent studying Yoga and meditation, I have witnessed this phenomenon over and over again: every devotee believes that his or her guru had a special mandate from God that makes his the best and most authentic lineage in the world. But while it is true that each organization has its own explanation of reality, the greater truth is that we are all much more similar than we are different. That is what Yoga means, after all - Union or Oneness. 

I used to attend Yoga seminars, workshops and classes on a regular basis. In 1971 I took my first Yoga class from Trish Arnold, the movement coach at the Stratford Shakespeare Festival of Canada. The actors would do Yoga asanas to limber their bodies before performing on stage. I took to it immediately, and immersed myself in one of the only books available at that time, Swami Vishnudevananda’s Complete Illustrated Book of Yoga.

In the middle of that decade I participated in a couple of sessions at Swami Satchidananda’s Integral Yoga Institute in Manhattan, and attended many of my Integral-trained colleagues’ classes at the New York Health Club, where we exchanged techniques and learned a great deal from each other. The most mature and insightful of those teachers, and the most helpful to me, was Harriet All.

During that same period I was initiated into Maharishi Mahesh Yogi’s Transcendental Meditation, which I practiced every day. 

I was also a Home Sanctum member of the Rosicrucian Order AMORC. The Rosicrucian teachings are based largely on the metaphysical principles of Yoga; so from 1977 until 1983 I studied the secrets of creation and the movement of life energy as taught in the ancient yogic tradition. 

In the 1980s and 90s I took classes at Mary Beth Markus’ studio, A Desert Song, in Phoenix – all three locations! I also enjoyed the classes I took from Aleta Arnold, Joy Lee Erik and Deb Sherman, and the great intro to Level One Astanga that Dave Oliver presented at Paradise Valley Community College. PVCC also hosted a wonderful workshop in Zen Meditation by Lu Bellamak. 

As a co-founder of the Arizona Yoga Association I enjoyed numerous workshops at our annual “Yogathons,” where I experienced the teaching styles of Anthony Carlisi, Mary Bruce, Paul Friedeman, Jap Singh Khalsa, Hari Jap Khalsa, Julie Crutchfield, Carol Mitchell, Ginny Spaven, Desiree Rumbaugh and many others. With my wife Nora I attended a couple of meetings at Swami Muktananda’s Siddha Yoga Meditation Center. 

All this while I was also teaching my own classes, which steadily increased in number. In 1991 I made the switch to full-time teaching of Yoga and meditation, and my students always benefited directly from every workshop or class that I attended. I joined the International Association of Yoga Therapists and read Georg Feuerstein’s newsletters, as well as the seminal books of Eknath Easwaran, David Frawley and T.K.V. Desikachar. I also read books by our first western masters, Indra Devi and Richard Hittleman. 

I did not limit my learning to Yoga teachers. I consulted with Chiropractors, Physical Therapists and Massage Therapists, and derived important information and helpful insights from all of them.

After reading Autobiography of a Yogi twice, I began the home study course of Paramahansa Yogananda’s Self-Realization Fellowship. Their energization exercises reflected very closely the techniques of the Rosicrucians that I had studied over a decade earlier. Also the same was their teaching that all manifestations of matter in the universe, and all dimensions of seeming reality, are made of the same indivisible “stuff” – the only difference being the rate at which it vibrates. 

In 1993 the American master Rama Jyoti Vernon graced me with some very pivotal workshops in the Yoga Sutras and Bhagavad Gita, and introduced me to one of her main teachers, Satguru Sant Keshavadas, at Unity in Yoga’s 100-Year Celebration of Yoga in America. For me, a highlight of that seminar was sitting in the presence of Swami Satchidananda, who had been for years one of my spiritual heroes. I had read books about him and articles by him, and had watched videos of him. Now I was able to bask in his actual company and hear his words from his own mouth. It was magical.

Sandra Summerfield Kozak was also there, and I later took some excellent classes and workshops from her in Phoenix, through her business International Yoga Studies. Sant Keshavadas was one of her teachers, too; and he became a pivotal influence for a couple of years – Nora and I attended his 60^th birthday party in Oakland, California – until he passed away unexpectedly at the age of 63. But his books continue to inform and inspire. You can hear recordings of his voice On-line at www.templeofcosmicreligion.org . His long-time follower and initiate, Swami Vandana Jyoti, who generously shared with me many precious gems of insight into the spiritual path, provides these recordings for our benefit.

“Santji” continued my meditation training by giving me a personal mantra. In those years I also took two different forms of Babaji’s Kriya Yoga – that offered by Roy Eugene Davis and the more complicated Level One initiation by Marshall Govindan. I also took Hatha Kriya Yoga from Desiree Lewis and Candace Rose.

At Phoenix College I subbed for, and took a class with, Kat Puralewski. At Glendale Community College I took a semester with Jennifer Marshall and a workshop with Carlyn Sikes. I took an Iyengar class with Heidi Lichte, and taught for over a year at the Forest House Yoga Studio.  Nora and I spent one magical evening at the local Sikh ashram, in the presence of Ma Jaya Sati Bhagavati.

A month after 9/11/2001 Nora and I were brave enough to attend The Southwest Yoga Conference in Palm Springs, California. We were glad we did; the atmosphere was wonderfully soothing and centering. At the conference we took classes from Judith Lasater, Lakshmi Voelker, Sandra Anderson and Naomi Judith Offner, and from Gyandev McCord of the Ananda Sangha. We also listened to lectures by Lama Surya Das, and by Pandit Rajmani Tigunait of The Himalayan Institute. I was a regular subscriber to Yoga International magazine. 

With the 21st century upon us, I learned more about Yogi Bhajan’s Kundalini Yoga from my friends Sangeet Kaur and Hari Jap Khalsa, as well as from Dr. Dharma Singh Khalsa’s book, Meditation as Medicine. I met some lovely folks who were devotees of Sri Sri Ravi Shankar’s Art of Living Foundation, and attended some of their meetings and took their Levels One and Two initiations. Being an experienced yogi, I could see that their energy-moving techniques were almost identical to those that Yogi Bhajan had brought to this country in the 1960s and taught to his American Sikhs; so the Art of Living claim that this was the first time such things had been revealed to westerners was a bit of an exaggeration. But they were very nice people, and their worldwide organization does some really important work, so I just chose to withdraw quietly without making a fuss over details or offering offense to anyone. 

Nora and I attended two annual “Yogavision” conferences held on the campus of Arizona State University, where we experienced the teaching styles of such notables as Dr. Dan Hart, Patricia Hansen, Amrit Desai and Dharma Mittra. We met such local Yoga artisans as Susan Nichols of Yogastyles.com and Cindy Lee of Mantra Metals. 

Around this same time I became aware of Mataji Nirmala Devi’s Sahaja Yoga, and was instructed in her technique of meditation. I found it very similar – though not as exact or scientific – as the Simplified Kundalini Yoga meditation techniques of Yogiraj Swami Vethathiri. I received initiation into SKY by Tony Pagliante, who became a friend.

Nowadays I no longer attend seminars, workshops or classes on a regular basis. I teach ten to twelve classes a week, and every morning I practice those Yoga asanas that are necessary to keep my back in alignment. I continue to read books. 

I’d be happy to sign up for another conference - those are always fun - if the time and location were convenient and the cost affordable; but those criteria are hard to fulfill. 

To my mind, the most important branch of Yoga is Meditation. But while I enjoy doing it as the spirit moves me, I no longer sit down to meditate at regular times every day. I basically meditate all the time – that is, I tend to go through my daily activities in a yogic state of mind. When I make a mistake, I am mindful of the fact and attempt to correct it in that very moment. On days when I am tired and unable to keep up this interior discipline, my mind still continues to analyze every thought in the light of Yoga philosophy. There is a constant Observer now - my Buddhi Mind watching over my ego mind. They fight for dominance sometimes, but I am always aware that I have a choice. 

As Sangeet Kaur Khalsa says, every breath of every day can be a mantra. Your life is your class, and after years of training under earthly masters your higher Self becomes your guru.

There is an oft-quoted piece of advice for beginning students these days - that you should only take classes from a teacher who is himself continuing his practice under his teacher. 

To those who give such advice I reply, “Yes, indeed - but your teacher’s Yoga doesn’t have to be physical – and his teacher doesn’t have to be in the flesh!”

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OM SHANTI, SHANTI, SHANTI
[Peace, Peace, Peace]