The Personal Path of a Yogi

There is so much that can be said about yoga that I don’t know what to say. I could talk about what it is, its origin, the meaning etc. And at the same time, there’s so much that has already been said it seems useless to say it again. I think of all the thing that I know about yoga, all that I’ve experienced with a life filled with yoga, that I really don’t know where to begin.

For me, yoga is everything. But then, I’ve been on a yogic path my whole life.

I would say that I started on the path of yoga when I was just a child. As an introverted and rather lonely child I spend a considerable amount of time contemplating and meditating on, well, nothing.

I would spend time in my favorite climbing tree just sitting and thinking. I would stare up into the night sky and try to grasp the infinite like the nuns at school said was impossible to do. At night I would lie there and see if I could stop my thoughts like the same nuns said was impossible.

As a young man I found the more formal path with a teacher, a man who took me under his wing as it were and taught me about enlightenment.

I had been seeking the Truth with books and various religious paths, but nothing satisfied. Among other things I was reading the bible and going to church to see what the self proclaimed experts said the words meant. The problem was that I read one thing that they said meant another.

Then one day in the health food store I saw a flyer about a talk that someone was giving about enlightenment and the bible. He was also talking about the Gnostic Gospels that had been recently released. The christians only shurgged their shoulders whenever I asked about the new scripture that had been recently discovered.

Being a sincere seeker I went to the talk to see what someone with a different point of view has to say about these mysterious things.

It turned out to be a preview for an Enlightenment Intensive that the speaker was giving in a few weeks. I liked what he was saying as it was more in line with what I was seeing in the bible than what the preachers were saying.

I was very naive and had no idea what I was getting into. Good thing too or I might not have gone. I fell in love with the meditation that was taught, a zen type of meditation.

The retreat was three days long, and very intense as the name intimates. And, I loved it. It really fed my soul. While I didn’t have a ‘direct experience’ during this first EI, I could tell that I had progressed towards something that I had been looking since I was just an eight year old boy.

And that was the start of my path with yoga. The man who gave that first EI I took became a most important teacher for me, guiding me for several years towards deeper and deeper experiences of the Truth. He influenced me so much that I named my son after him, that is his middle name, Daniel.

Daniel led me to two other very important teachers. One was Swami Kripalu, an Indian saint who initiated me into depth sadhana (spiritual practice) that I now practice. The other was Yogeshware, an American who was a disciple of Kripalu’s.

I didn’t have much time with either of these teachers, but their influence was and is extremely deep. Suffice to say I fell in love with the path of yoga. For one thing, it led to deep experiences of energy yoga.

Perhaps I’ll continue to write about my story, and by that you might understand the depth of yoga and what it really means. Maybe the story of a yogi who has been on the path for over 40 years, formally for 30 might give some insight to a few. While I have studied dozens of subjects during my life, it has all been yoga, I owe it all to yoga. There is lots to return.

Peace,

Kalidasa

~~send2wpsp~~

Recommended Reading

• Yoga Videos
• Yoga Ethics
• Yoga for Christians
• The Cost of Practicing Yoga, Studying Philosophy Encouraged

Tagged as: enlightenment, Meditation, my path