Kirtan

Kirtan with Stina and Niels from the Facebook Group of Kirtan Copenhagen

Mantras is one of the 5 ways that the Yoga Sutras recognize in the sutra 4.1 to reach liberation. Kirtan is singing mantras repeatedly together with a group of people. Stina and Niels organize in Copenhagen and in Mandrem Kirtan sessions that are full of energy and love.

In this interview they tell us what they do and how they do it. The interview is interrupted with pieces of recordings of two kirtan sessions at Stina's and Niels' home in Mandrem.

The quality of the recordings was not too good that's why I took me a year to edit and upload this chapter. At the end recognizing that no recording is going to be able to reproduce the energy of the moment I have finally uploaded it here.

If you have the opportunity to attend a Kirtan session with Stina and Niels don't hesitate!, it's special!

Starting your own Yoga studio

Claudia and her partner started some time ago their own Yoga studio in Leipzig under the brand Yoga Rausch . In this chapter of the podcast she tells me how the process has been, how they have organized the classes and the work.

Barcelona Yoga Conference

Wari has been organizing together with his siblings the Barcelona Yoga Conference an multiple days event in Barcelona with plenty of Yoga practice, all styles; and kirtan concerts. This year 2019, it takes place from the 4th to the 8th of July and the program includes a lot of Acroyoga, Power Yoga and Kirtan highlights like the Krishna Das concert.

In this interview he tells me how the event is and feels and how they ended up organizing it.

Indian Traditional Philosophy

Ira Schepetin is an scholar of Indian traditional philosophies and in particular Vedanta. I had the pleasure to ask him a couple of questions about the relationship of Yoga and indian traditional philosophies during last season in India.
Of course, he didn't have time to cover the topic in depth but he gives some glimpses in this conversation which can be useful. He mentions the differences between Vedanta, Yoga (the philosophy) and Buddhism in several fundamental aspects.
There are several of Ira's speeches in youtube like this one https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=usu_cLGXLg4
I really like listening to Ira and I hope next year I get another opportunity to record another chapter of the podcast.

Organizing Retreats

In this chapter I had a conversation with Sara from Sankalpa Sicily. Sara is a woman that irradiates energy that I had the pleasure to meet in Goa December 2018. We had this conversation for the podcast in which Sara tells me how she started organizing yoga retreats in Sicily and what she believes makes a good retreat.

Sara has organized a retreat with Balu Thevar in June the last two years in Sicily. For 2019 Balu is not available in June and wanted to do the retreat in August. Since the place of Sara in Sicily is not available in August, the option opened to organize in Spain. Sara was also busy in August but Balu will still come to Spain for a first retreat in Valencia, inauguration of the place this year.

I very much wanted to have Sara organizing retreats in Valencia Spain but she is going to explore possibilities taking yogis into Cachemira in the summer. I am very thankful for her sharing in this podcast her experience and advice on retreats.

Yoga Photography

Wari Om studied photography and was working as a photographer when he discovered Yoga. He has since then managed to integrate his work with his passion for Yoga and work full time as a yoga photographer. Wari creates artistic projects for major magazines and is also producing films. In this chapter he tells me about all this and in a separate podcast he explains about the Barcelona Yoga Conference that he organizes with his family.
The link to his website is https://www.wari.cat and to the conference here https://www.barcelonayogaconference.cat/

Yoga TTCs

03 TTCs with Claudia from Holland

Claudia has done several Yoga Teacher Training Courses in India during her Yoga journey and I have only done one, we have a longer conversation about what is it like doing a TTC in India and our own experiences with it.

During the conversation we also briefly comment about the adjustment course of Balu which she had done the year before and I was doing at the moment of recording the podcast chapter.

There is some noise in the background at some point which I hope is not too disturbing. The conversation was recorded at Eyes of Buddha in Arambol late November or early December 2018.

Yoga Nidra and TTCs

In this chapter I talk with Meera from Diya Yoga who is giving Yoga Nidra courses and Multi-style Yoga TTCs at her school in Arambol, Goa. She explains me what is Yoga Nidra, where it comes from and how she uses it to help people. We also talk in general about what it takes to have a Yoga school and teach multi-style TTCs and the different trends in Goa.

Going to India for the season

Premal MA has been going to India for the last 15 years and shares some tips and knowledge about India and where to go, in particular for Yoga practitioners.

This interview was recorded in January 2019 in Aramabol, Goa

You can listen to the chapter in iVoox here as the first chapter of the series of Yoga Interviews