June 21 is celebrated World Yoga Day around the world. But what is yoga really? To find out, we went to one of the oldest yoga centers in Dubai.
Modern yogis have long crossed the snowy frontiers of the Himalayas and feel quite comfortable in large megacities. There are many of them among top managers, heads of financial institutions and public figures, since yoga is primarily knowledge. Knowledge of how to manage yourself, how to achieve success, how to properly maintain at a high level your energy, and therefore your life. For this knowledge we went to the center SanjeevKrishnaYoga on Al Wasl Road In Dubai.
Many people mistakenly think that yoga is an exercise in stretching the body. However, yoga is a much more subtle, complex and amazing thing than asanas. Yoga can change your life to the same extent that a 6-cylinder engine, put in place of the old 4-cylinder, can change the power of the car. Or as if you put a processor in your computer that is 2-4 times more powerful than the previous one. The shell would remain the same, but the computing and distinguishing abilities, strategy, performance and speed of your computer would be much better.
But yoga must be carefully and painstakingly studied. And be patient. First of all, yoga (without going into various philosophical definitions) is a system of psychophysical practices aimed at balancing your body and mind. Yoga unites the mind and body, with its help you gain support and center inside, which means that it is already difficult to confuse you.
Yoga is somewhat similar to psychology and psychotherapy, in the sense that they all work with the human mind. There is only one “but” - modern psychology recognizes the mind, intellect and the realm of the unconscious, while yoga, in addition to the above, also recognizes the highest essence in a person, or soul, which is determining. This is the fundamental difference between the Western and Eastern approaches to the study of man. Moreover, both of them have nothing to do with religion. Yoga is outside of religion and can be applied to all people.
Asanas, or hatha yoga, which is now taught in almost all fitness clubs, is only one part of the 8 steps of classical yoga. And not the main, but rather preparatory. Before starting breathing exercises and meditation, the body needs to be prepared, stretched, stretched, open its energy channels. For this, hatha yoga was originally developed. According to the founder of yoga Patanjali, yoga consists of 8 stages (including self-discipline, concentration, pranayama, ethical principles, moral laws, meditation, etc.) and is more like a system of practices and knowledge on a person’s spiritual and physical upgrade, to reveal the maximum potential laid down in him. And if you compare our body with a very advanced gadget, then yoga is the very tool that recharges you with energy. A lot of energy - you love everyone, everyone loves you, you want to communicate and you have the strength to realize your goals. Little energy - you ask to leave you alone.
Therefore, with the right approach and proper guidance with the help of yoga, you can achieve very impressive results. Forget about ascetics meditating in cold caves. Modern yogis are primarily effective and realized managers of their lives. They know how to reach their potential, how to control their mind, how to increase their energy, how to control their anger. Therefore, this knowledge will be useful to anyone who thinks at least about their self-development.
All this is written to explain what Sanjeev Krishna teaches at his center. Of course, you will find various types of physical yoga there, such as hatha, zero gravity, ashtanga and ashtanga-vinyasa yoga, but still the most interesting is the Rhythm of Life (ROL), an author’s course taught by Sanjeev Krishna himself (// sanjeevkrishna.yoga/). There will be no asanas on it - on it you will be given the very knowledge that will help in the future to balance your life and "upgrade" your current level.
Many, by the way, specially go somewhere to Kailash, Dharmasalu or Rishikesh to go through similar retreats there. But now it can be done in Dubai, in Jumeirah, and also with the inherent comfort of Dubai. In this case, you will receive the same knowledge, that is, based on the ancient classical yoga sutras.
Sanjeev Krishna himself has been practicing in Dubai for more than 14 years, more than 6,000 people have passed through his center. He often holds trainings and lectures in large companies like ENOC, Mars, GEMs, Emaar and others. It is the only yoga studio accredited by the International Council for Accreditation in Yoga (CYAI) and awarded the Dubai Ministry of Health and Medicine for participating in the World Health program.
So what to expect from the Rhythm Of Life program? First of all, you will learn the techniques of pranayama, or breathing exercises. What are they needed for? Our mind constantly jumps from one to another. Smells, music, visual pictures, someone’s words or different situations in which you find yourself are always distracting and sometimes confusing. As a result, thoughts jump like crazy, and you can not calm down, continuing the internal dialogue 24 hours a day. So, yogis have long noticed that the variability of the human mind is associated with breathing. And controlling your breathing means controlling your mind and emotions. This does not require much breathing - for this you need to breathe correctly. By calming your breath, you will calm your mind. With a calm mind, you will be able to make better decisions, which means you can become more successful. Pranayama also increases vital energy through the control and regulation of its flow in the body.
Have you noticed how often we try to solve a problem while inside the problem itself? But often the solution is beyond. This is exactly what Sanjeev Krishna explains - how to step over the framework into which you yourself have placed yourself. After this, an amazing thing happens - those questions for which you could not find the answers disappear as unnecessary. And when there are no questions, there are no problems.
Well, and most importantly - you will be given knowledge about meditation. Despite all the outward simplicity, it is very difficult to meditate properly. In silence, the mind can throw out various tricks, and it is incredibly difficult to calm it down. That is why hatha yoga and pranayama precede meditation - this removes the external ballast of unnecessary information that has accumulated in you. You are relaxing. Meditation is a too intimate and delicate process, but it is with this technique that the deepest results are achieved. That is why meditation is the main concept in yoga. It was in meditation that the ancient Indian rishis reached the highest knowledge that science is only now discovering.
A good bonus of the course will be a healthy diet. I have never tried such delicious salads and super-healthy juices and drinks. It turns out that their recipes are more than 2 thousand years old. It would be great if such food was sold at least somewhere in Dubai.
Finally, I want to say that if you want to at least change something in your life, do not sit and do not wait. Take action. It doesn’t work out - try something else. This is what distinguishes a leader from a subordinate. After all, a leader is not one who leads to a brighter future for a mass of people. Leadership is primarily how you build your life - passively or actively. The difference lies in your outlook on life, in the details of your lifestyle, in the daily habits that shape your destiny. And here you will find some surprises and revelations. And they will come in handy.
Yoga will teach you self-contemplation. You will be able to control your thoughts and desires and better understand life. You will surely become calmer and get rid of stress. And if you take it seriously, you will develop mental and spiritual skills.
And remember: we sleep an average of 8 hours a day. This means that we spend 10 days a month in a dream, 4 months a year. The remaining 6 months, as a rule, we dream of something, we spend one month on vacation, and only one month we do something. And then we wonder why nothing happens in our lives. Take responsibility for your life. You have only this day, only this moment. The past and the future are only in your head. But you live here and now.
In more detail about yoga, we spoke with Sanjiv Krishna personally.
Sanjeev, you come from India, but did you open your center in Dubai?
Yes, I started teaching here in Dubai. Before that, I worked for 13 years in large corporations, in banks, in transport logistics. But I always gathered knowledge on yoga, studied, studied with different masters. After all, yoga is the evolution of human development, self-realization, knowledge that helps to unleash the potential inherent in you. And this knowledge is infinite. I arrived in Dubai 15 years ago - then I was the regional director of a housing company and talked a lot with its general manager, since we were from the same banking group. And I began to teach him. And then gradually in Dubai, I began to teach yoga classes. But I decided that if I do this seriously, I will do it my own way. I had my own vision. Yoga is too important and precious for me to teach it mechanically, superficially, only commercially. Yoga cannot be just a business, it is something else. First I opened a center in Karam, and word of mouth did its job - people came to me. We worked there for more than 10 years, and a couple of years ago we opened a new center in Jumeirah, on Al Wasl Road. I did everything here myself, the whole design. And this is not only a yoga studio, but also a center of martial arts such as Kalari - you are unlikely to find something like this in the Emirates. At the same time, Kalari is an ancient combat training system that is still based on yoga.
Who did you learn from? Tell us about your teachers.
Even at a very young age I began to read books on yoga, and at the age of 14 I became a student of Siddha Yoga Sri Thankappana, a direct student of Swami Sivananda. He himself found me and asked if I want to get yoga knowledge. After that, I was with him for 6 years, right up to the end of his life. Then I wanted to deepen my knowledge and began to study different schools and directions. For three years I studied kriya yoga at the Yogoda Satsanga Society, founded by Paramahansa Yoganada (the author of the famous book "Autobiography Yoga" - Note ed.) Then I studied Siddhi Samadhi Yoga under the guidance of Rishi Prabhakar, and I acquired the greatest knowledge there. Then he studied at the Bihar Yoga School, the main Satyananda, a student of Sivananda.
These are all authentic, classic yoga schools, most respected in India. But this knowledge, I repeat, has no end. As a result, having synthesized everything, I came to the stage of designing my program. So I opened my center. I wanted different schools of yoga to be united into one knowledge on the basis of one platform. In my program, I pay more attention to management and life management. A lot of questions are also given to diseases caused by the psychosomatic causes with which we work.
What effect can a person get from yoga?
It depends on your intention and on whether you are ready to devote yourself to this knowledge entirely, whether you are ready to discipline your life. All negative emotions affect your mind and body. If you do not accept the situation, you resist. In yoga, you can immerse yourself in the molecular level, I talk about this in detail in my class. Your negative emotions, like poison, gradually poison the body, which is why diseases gradually form. This is psychosomatics. You need to take the situation actively, take the initiative in your own hands, take action. As soon as this happens, you wake up, you have strength. Through certain knowledge and techniques, we help to cope with many diseases, including diabetes, diseases of the thyroid gland and musculoskeletal system, high blood pressure, migraines, and depression. This knowledge has a very profound effect. Therefore, when all else fails, many doctors send patients to me.
Do you shoot physical and mental blocks?
I do nothing. I just explain, share knowledge - and people do everything themselves, since these abilities are inherent in every person. We can all do much more than we imagine. And it always works. There is no miracle here. Each of us can do this. The knowledge is so direct and clear that you yourself will understand everything and begin to apply it.
Can I learn to control my mind?
Can. You can learn to manage everything - both mind and emotions. And, as a result, you will begin to control not only your mind, but also your life.
