namahatta.org - Congregational Development Ministry

by HH Dhanurdhara Maharaja

“Is there therapy in the Vedas?” I was a bit taken aback by this inquiry from a young and dedicated yoga practitioner. He had been struggling for years with psychological problems. Although he had embraced a traditional path of yogic transformation, he found the help he needed in a more modern self-help process based on contemporary psychology.

As I thought about his inquiry, however, the answer seemed obvious. Rich in a tradition of intact family and community support, those born in traditional India did not need to rely on specialists to sort out mental afflictions caused mostly by social dysfunction. Classical Indian philosophy, especially its traditions of yoga, does, however, have detailed information on the nature of the mind.

Yoga is becoming a controversial topic these days. Devotees practice it for health reasons and as a means to reach out to an audience increasingly aware of and open to health and new age trends.

Now the Malaysian National Fatwa Council has banned Muslims in that country from practicing yoga, according to this BBC News article:

Millions of people in Malaysia have been banned from doing yoga because of fears it could corrupt Muslims.

The Islamic authorities have issued a ruling, known as a fatwa, instructing the country's Muslims to avoid yoga because of its Hindu roots.

This Sunday, 29th July 2008, is the second annual Yoga fest in Brisbane.

Jonathan Murphy from Radiant Light Yoga has worked really hard to pull off this event, which brings together Brisbane's entire yoga community once a year.

By Karuna Dharini Devi Dasi

Atma Yoga began as the dream of Atmananda when he was still Bhakta Dirk.

His desire was to create a bridge to bhakti that would serve the burgeoning hatha yoga community. While accepting Srila Prabhupada's declaration that mechanical yoga (hatha yoga, raja yoga, kundalini yoga, etc…) will not lead to liberation, he considered that the many persons getting involved in yoga nowadays might not accept that declaration quite so readily.

What these ambitious yoga participants would need is something that would give them a positive and healthy yoga experience and at the same time an opportunity to experience the potential of Krishna consciousness.

The goal was to give people a transformative experience with mechanical yoga while slowly and lovingly cultivate in them an appreciation for the beauty and magic of bhakti.

Posted On: Sat, 2006-10-14 21:11 by josh sitapati at www.atmayogi.com

"How to stimulate valid innovation while preserving our core values? A look at one way that ISKCON members have been using "novel ways and means" to introduce people to Krishna Consciousness."

A Preacher's Dilemma

There is a growing sense of unease about the effectiveness of our current preaching paradigms in Western cities. The rising number of ads calling for pujaris, cooks, and preachers to reinforce existing ISKCON temples is a visible indicator that recruitment from the general public has slowed down drastically.

Some say that the slowdown is due to mechanically doing "more of the same" when times have moved on; we no longer live in the world of the 60s and 70s, in which Srila Prabhupada weaved his way expertly through the cultural environment. "Srila Prabhupada's own example is one of sensitive and intelligent adaptation. We need to find the appropriate ways and means to stay relevant to a changing culture!"

Others counter that it is exactly this push to "change things" that is sapping the life out of the movement; that it represents a loss of faith in the process that Srila Prabhupada gave us. "There is no need for something new. What we need is a return to purity and the basics - the Prabhupada program. This talk of doing something "different" is a symptom of the very problem!"

As I consider myself "within ISKCON", I consider that what I do is "within ISKCON". The teachers at our yoga school are a mixture of initiated grand-disciples of Srila Prabhupada and aspiring grand-disciples of Srila Prabhupada who have been introduced to ISKCON through association with the devotees who teach there.

Lately I’ve been reading a few of the articles on yogadangers.com. I first came across this site a few months ago when it popped up in the Google ads I was trialling on my blog. I read through it then, but revisited it the other day after a recent incident.

On Friday night on the bus home from Atma Yoga I got chatting with a guy who told me he had not been back to the Sunday Feast since I last saw him there because his digestion was “cactus” (Australian for b0rked). When I enquired what was wrong and how it had happened, he explained that it was “tantric misadventure” and then gave me a bone-chilling account that mirrored some of the ones I had read on yogadangers.com about Kundalini awakening gone wrong.

Lord Kapila, the Personality of Godhead, who is the highest authority on yoga, here explains the yoga system known as ashtanga-yoga, which comprises eight different practices, namely yama, niyama, asana, pranayama, pratyahara, dharana, dhyana and samadhi. By all these stages of practice one must realize Lord Vishnu, who is the target of all yoga. There are so-called yoga practices in which one concentrates the mind on voidness or on the impersonal, but this is not approved by the authorized yoga system as explained by Kapiladeva. Even Patanjali explains that the target of all yoga is Vishnu. Ashtanga-yoga is therefore part of Vaishnava practice because its ultimate goal is realization of Vishnu.

Today I did three and a half yoga classes - five hours in total.

Usually Monday morning is a wipe out after the Sunday Feast. Now with the Yoga Teachers Training Course that we are on we have to be at the yoga studio at 6 am for a two hour led practice session.

Last night I got to sleep after midnight, then got up at 5 am, showered, chanted 7 rounds, and went to the studio. Two hours later I was feeling great, after an hour of pranayama and 45 minutes of asana.

I came home and took breakfast, then chatted with various Atma Yoga staff members about the program, then Param, Prahlad, and I went over to the temple. Our god sister Carana Renu is arriving in Brisbane tomorrow. She has a Ph.D in astrophysics, and will be doing some programs at the university. We went over to the temple to prepare a room for her to stay in.