Healing Through Tradition: Akshay Bhat on Mantras and Yoga

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0:41 But you see some air Hostess, they they greet you with so much love. Especially maybe you see in the this side Asian side. Yeah. And you feel that. Yeah, this is real smile and something which is real definitely be sold and people really trust that a trust is when I say I trust that, that means I'm doubting my trust because trust is a very natural way of connection. If I put it into words, it's it's already Trust is broken. Welcome to the Going Pro Yoga

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1:48 Whether you want to share yoga or teach yoga or just practice yoga. This podcast is talking all things yoga related and we're trying to talk from the teacher's perspective and also the student's perspective to make sure we get a full 360° angle on what yoga is all about and how it's evolved in the modern world.

2:03 Welcome to our podcast. As the yoga tradition always begins and ends with the the Om chance, so let's start today's podcast with Om chance and opening prayer. Taking a deep breath, once again, deep breath once again deep breath in. Oh, this is the opening player from the Vedas, one of the ancient mantras. Let's I will change it for you.

3:29 Sure. Om shanti shanti shanti om shanti it's. Very nice. So hello. Hello. Hello. Shall we start? Shall we jump in? Yes. OK, hello, everyone. Thank you for tuning in. I'm Michael here and we have a guest, special guest, Akshay, who is leading the the Ohms and the mantras just a moment ago.

4:43 So hello Akshay, welcome to the podcast. Namaste. Yeah, it's great to have you here. So I'd like to get into knowing you a little bit more and just explaining who you are. But before we do that, perhaps you can just explain a little bit more about what we just did. Like what was the mantra exactly and why? So basically the mantra is mainly for the chants that we use to invoke the energy body.

5:13 And the yogic tradition always focuses more on the energy body. So this mantras, what we just chanted, the Sanawatu is from the Upanishad. It is not written by someone, it's not man made. So we say this is, you know, the mantras in the deep transcendental state.

5:42 These sages when they're in the meditation, they received it like, you know, a radio is tuned into 108 there is some kind of a frequency then radio receives the music exactly like that. The mind, the higher mind received this mantras and it was chanted and during that time the the sages couldn't remember because they're in the transcendental state of mind.

6:14 The, the Shishas, the disciple will listen and make a note, like just memorize, just by listening, they memorize, not even writing it down. So then the guru will come down to the, you know, the normal state of mind and then he will receive from the student. So like that the the student and teacher's relationship, the mantras and yoga have transmitted for many years, thousands of years.

6:49 Interesting. So what I'm hearing you say is the teacher, the guru is in this transcendental state receiving, receiving the frequency, receiving the, the, the, the sounds, the words. And in that state, it's, you know, so present that recollecting or remembering that is not possible. So then the student is there to basically do that for them. Yeah.

7:12 And then after that it's shared. Is that right? Yes, absolutely. The first quality of the guru is receiving. So we often misunderstand that the guru is the, you know, he's giving knowledge. The first quality is guru is receiving knowledge.

7:33 He's just being an instrument. He's transmitting it, just passing on to the next person. Receiving it and then passing it on, yeah, interesting. This mantra, the Sahana Vavatu, is the mantra that we chant in. In many traditions, like if you go to the yogic tradition of Kriya Yoga, Hatha Yoga, Ashtanga or Laya Yoga or I have studied in the gurukula, there the first mantra they teach is this. There is something, the speciality about it because it is the connection between a

8:15 teacher and a student. Like Sahana Bhavatu. Saha is like us, the teacher and the student, a receiver and a giver. And bavatu is protected. You know, like Sahana Bhavatu. Sahana Bhunaktu means let this connection be nurtured. So only the protection.

8:43 We protect a tree, we don't you know, put water or we don't do anything, then it won't won't be nurtured. So to nurture it, we had to again and again recite and you know, give more and Saha viryam karabawa hai. We are here to receive or give knowledge with all the vigor, like all the strength that is Viryam tejaswinavadhi tamas to let us be glorious in the path, whatever the path is and ma vidvi shavahai. So this mantra goes like this, that to have that kind of energetical, you know, let's say

9:36 energetical lock that no negative energy will interrupt this flow of yoga or conversation or whatever it is. So like that it it's some kind of a boundary it puts. OK, great. And thank you for that. And now I want to just kind of allow people to learn a little bit more of who you are, right? So thank you for the mantra, Thank you for the explanation. Already starting to learn some things. So I know who you are.

10:07 And I'll just explain a little bit of what I know about you, Akh Shai, and then you can explain a little bit more of where you're from. And yeah, a little bit more of where you're coming from. But basically I'm at Akh Shai probably almost a year ago, I feel in actually one of Paul's classes. I remember you coming up to me and just introducing yourself very courageously and politely.

10:28 And you know, we just started to like have a conversation and then, you know, one thing led to another. And, you know, a year later, now Akshaya is involved in in teaching and some of our trainings that we have here and teaching a lot of yoga, philosophy and I'm sure other things as well, not only with our school, but other schools as well. And originally from India, of course. So why don't you take a little bit of time just to explain where from in India, what your

10:57 upbringing is, where you study, what you you know, the things we talked about before we hit record, just to allow people to understand a little bit more of where you're coming from. So it's an absolute privilege to be here.

11:13 It's a great opportunity for me to be in this space, like of course, to be in Bali. Thank you for that. So my upbringing, I'm from, you know, coastal line of India, from the South of India close to Goa. My parents always involved in the, you know, mantra chanting from the from my childhood. So when I wake up in the morning, already my father is doing pooja, my mother is lighting up the lamps and this kind of environment.

11:52 Then I studied in the Gurukula. I went to monastery school where yoga was a part of the education. That's the first time I ever did yoga practice and how. Old. How old were you? I think I was 11. 11 years old. Yeah. So you said a guru. Guru Gurukula.

12:12 Is that a monastery? Is that what that means? Yeah, it's kind of a monastery. It was boys school. OK. And we will. We are initiated into the ancient knowledge. Well, India had ancient knowledge for a long time, but it was, you know, after the colonization, et cetera, India lost its tradition because a continuously Mughal rulers invading and the British. And then this ancient knowledge was kind of getting everywhere, you know, like it's not seen in

12:49 the education system. Luckily, somehow I went to the gurukula. I'm so grateful for that. And we used to start with the asana practice like hardcore asana practice. Like Ashtanga? Like it's not even Ashtanga, let's say like Chakradanda, you know, like a push up with 20-30 variations.

13:18 And so I remember goddess pose, holding goddess pose for 15 minutes, like in 5 minutes everything is burning. And then after that they will let us like OK, now it's the time for you to chant Gayatri. And like we are in so much pain.

13:38 We don't want to talk about, you know, Gayatri or mantras, but they they somehow like discipline the mind like this pain is making you stronger. And then from the the foundation was set very strong. So it it already broke the kind of a pattern that yoga is not physical in in the first few days of yoga practice itself. Were you?

14:10 How many? Like was it just you or was there many other students as well? We were eighty of us, 8080, yeah, 80 boys. Wow. And in the middle of the forest, okay, sometimes elephants coming into the gurukula. And then at the night, we are well, people are scared usually, but we are boys. We are excited.

14:33 The elephants are here. We are, Oh, we are. You know, elephants have come. Let's take a fire and run towards the elephant, right? And then we are next to the Kaveri River. It's one of the sacred river of South India. So it was like a total jungle experience and only thing that we were like focused is this ancient knowledge that and we were so busy like starting from 4:30 AM. So we cannot miss that morning prayer. When we wake up, everybody had to run and gather. So the bell will ring in just 5

15:22 minutes. We have to gather and then all of us will pray. So that was the kind of upbringing the Gurukula education teachers that the total connection with the, you know, mantras and some kind of, let's say a celestial world. And also, I don't want to say isolated, but you, you were because you was in the jungle.

15:49 There wasn't a lot of other distraction, let's just say. No other distraction. We never, I remember we had television I think the end of the year, the second year I studied three-year in gurukula. First year I we haven't even heard a song. It's only thing we will hear is like you know the mantras, Badran, Karne, Vishraniyamadeva, this, this, this and then some Sangeeta, some somebody will come and sing song. But we would never.

16:25 I didn't hear any jazz music or anything that you guys. Right, no Taylor Swift or anything like that. Nothing like that. Not even girls. Even the girls are like in the tradition of India. We we worship girls like we say them.

16:45 We see them as Devatas. So whoever used to like some like, OK, beautiful girls are coming and then wow, she looks like a Radha. You know, like so many stories they. Have what is a Radha? Radha is one of the lady, you know, one of the woman.

17:07 She she worshipped Krishna for a long time, like entire her lifetime. Everything she did is she she did it for Krishna. OK, so Radha is some kind of everybody has that some special love for Radha I. See. So that kind of environment.

17:29 OK. So that was the bringing in Gurukulada, let's say a value education which is giving so much of attention to all these values. Yaman Yamas in yoga and also we have the go seva you know we had to take care of the cow, the. Cow the cows.

17:56 Cows. OK, so we had to go and clean the cow and then just milk. And sometime we we used to be, you know, very notorious. We would steal some butter like Krishna. Exactly. Steal some chapatis and do all of the, the crazy things.

18:20 That's all the crazy things we did in the gurukula. OK, I I kind of want to know what some of those crazy things are, but I don't know if you want to share that or not. Absolutely, I would love to share that. OK, well tell me what? What kind of crazy things?

18:34 Give me one or two examples. So one of the example is that in Gurukula education, you know, it's it's kind of the, the food that we used to get was very limited because we used to, you know, it's a disciplined way of eating and night 8:00 everybody will go back to bed, 8:00 or 8:30 like that.

19:05 And then I used to be like, OK, now this is my time to have a coconut water. And somebody used to watch the coconut farm. So then I used to climb a tree with my friends and take the coconut and then just, you know, give it to them like, OK, it's our party time.

19:29 So one of the day this happened, this guy just that I think his teacher, I remember his name also Naneshwar, he was what he kind of saw that the students are outside after 9:00, what are they doing? And he came and I was on top of the tree. Now I will get caught.

19:52 So I went inside the coconut tree and I hidden there and he couldn't catch me. You know, like I was like a monkey, you know, born monkey instinct. You're like part of the tree now. Part of the tree, Yeah. So we we have a lot of crazy stories. Once this happened, I remember there was a lot of peanut was put for drying in the field.

20:24 And I picked up one, just one to taste. That's like an instinct of a people. And this guy who was looking after and he said he caught me then like what are you doing? You took this without permission. Like I just took one.

20:43 Then he said, no, this is a stealing. And then he took me to the the master, the headmaster there. And the punishment was that I had to stay out of the room. Like sleep outside the. Room. Yeah, sleep outside the room. And the next day, everybody gathered in the prayer and then they're like, this guy stole.

21:06 He stole one peanut. And I'm like, OK. Oh wow. Like shame. A shame game. Yeah, no kidding. And you're like 11/12/13, something like. This, yeah, something like this. But we we used to play all the time. The playfulness was there.

21:25 This was not like a traumatic experience. It wasn't like prison or military. No, no, OK. It was, it was all the time fun for us, like learning was fun. I remember some of my friends just mugging up Bhagavad Gita from first Loka to you know, 700 shlokas are there in Bhagavad Gita first to 707, hundred to first, OK. They will recite like 12345 and 54321. So the memory was very sharp.

21:57 If you would tell me something in Spanish, I would just exactly recite it for you exactly the same way. So that kind of memory power was real. You know, like I told you the first time they remember and give back to the guru, that was real.

22:16 Well, that's what I figured out from gurukula. And from there I went to, you know, S Vyasa, Swami Vivekananda Kendra, to continue the yoga education. So you just said a big word I don't understand. Is that like high school? It's a it's a college.

22:36 It's like a college. Yeah. OK. And you were like 1415 at this point. Or or is there a space in between? I yeah. So in between I, I, when I went to out of Gurukula, I went, I was kind of, I had all this value education, but I kind of lacked in the, the modern days, you know, the technology and the, the music. Taylor Swift.

23:04 Yeah, understanding what is all the things outside of this? I missed Michael Jackson, right? So that that just excited me when I came out. Wow. This is a whole different world that I have. I have no idea what's going on here and the the thing that really excited me was computers. So I I remember we had this before the big PC and I used to watch a lot of lot of movies.

23:39 Like I only thing I will do is in a day I watch 3 movies that that's what I did when I came out of Gurukula. I think it was some kind of balance was required that we missed it. We were becoming too much into yoga and somehow to it LED in the good way, like setting, understanding, balance, you know, at the age of 15, let's say. OK.

24:12 So then you went to what you described as college and what was that? What did that do for you? So you continued to study yoga, is that right? Yeah, so when I started computer education, I also started gaming and I kind of addicted to gaming.

24:29 For a two year I was just playing games with computer all the time. Then I realized one of the day I remember it's called as Guru Purnima, a special full moon day. One of my teacher called me and then he's like, if you don't leave the computer and come back to Gurukula, I will never speak to you.

24:56 But somewhat clicked me like what? He won't speak to me. He's my teacher, he's my guru. And at that moment I I kind of felt it like he he's really telling me this. He there is some kind of messages there in this. That time I just left.

25:18 I left computers, I left everything and went back to Gurukula for a week. I just stayed there and just saw like what people are doing. And then I was like, OK, it's time for me to do something else. Then I was very good at yoga, you know, like if you see my pictures, the young age, I was pulling a car, you know, from my teeth. Like the car is tied with the rope and then it's with my teeth and I will pull the car.

25:56 I really want to see that photo later by the way. Yeah. OK, wow. And then like with the with the throat chakra, like there is this rod, you know, the iron thing. And then my teacher would bend the iron thing like he his throat chakra was throat was so strong.

26:19 So we used to be like physically super duper fit. Then I realized that this is this is not me. The computer's not me. Then I went back to the yogic education again. OK. And what was the education like for you? Like, was it multiple years? Was it like general learning about yoga? Did you get to choose what you wanted to learn? Was it like in an ashram?

26:49 Like describe it for me. So going from ashram I was expecting very similar education, but in SVS it was the Swami Vivekananda Kendra. It was very scientific based study, like they have a lab where we study about mantras and they will check whether the delta wave is active or how the brain is reacting for all the different mantras.

27:27 The delta wave in the brain, yeah. Reacting to the mantras OK. So what kind of brain waves are more when we when we chant or when we chant Vedic mantras, What's happening? Whether it's sympathetic dominance, parasympathetic dominance.

27:46 So we got into the science in SVSL, like really understanding whether this is this is just black magic. I think many people still think yoga is a black magic. I just saw a post few days ago a pseudoscience they call then we have we literally studied with participants who have asthma who have back pain every day sitting with them taking their like what's your bowel moment, how is your sleep like physically, how much active you are. We take all the details like

28:26 yogic counseling we will do and literally study them like what's actually causing asthma there. There's supposed to be some root cause. Then it's in the end it is all went to the stress and it's all psychosomatic disorders.

28:47 They call all stress borne disease. Like I think these days it's the area that we need to address that how the stress borne diseases are affecting, Like some of my friends having, you know, eating disorders, super fit people working very well, everything is good, but they eat food, they vomit, right? Yeah, so stress borne disorder disorders. Stress borne disorders.

29:18 So when you were studying, you were was this yoga therapy that you were studying? Yes. So this was the this was the game changer for me. This actually I got so much interested in this, all of these subjects. They gave us the text called Yoga Vasishta, which is one of the very important texts for yoga therapy. When Lord Shri Rama is considered as one of the highest godly figure in India, he himself goes to depression. A king goes into depression like

30:01 me. He studied in Gurukula for 20 years. I studied three years, he studied 20 years. And then he tells his father that I don't want to take care of the Kingdom. You know, I'm happy with my chanting my mantras. I want to go to the liberation. Then the Dasharatha, his father tells the Guru, his Rama's guru that what is going on.

30:28 We sent you, you know, sent to you for education. And our boy tells that he doesn't want to rule the Kingdom. So then the the Sri Rama's depression, how it is dealt, that is the Yoga Vasista. Then Vasista gives the tools that this kind of attitude is coming because there is some kind of stress going on.

30:57 So he he literally explains this about let's say about 8-9 thousand years ago about psychosomatic disorders. It's literally written as Adija Vyadi Anadija Vyadi in the text. And that means? That means mind borne disease and acute disease, like how acute disease should be treated and what is Rama's problem. And Rama being such a you know, in India, we call him as Mariyada Purushotam.

31:33 He's he's the best of the best person and he goes into depression and how he deals. That's what the text is. So they'll, they come up with so many, you know, questions and answers, so many stories they discussed, like this podcast, let's say the first podcast was Yoga Vasista.

31:56 Right. Yeah. So then you were learning about these types of causes or diseases or stresses in the body and then incorporating or learning more about how mantras can have a positive effect on brain change brain frequency, the the waves and how that might influence the overall system. Is that right?

32:19 Yeah, absolutely. We we had a approach actually. So we have a yogic approach to treat a disease. It's called as integrated yogic approach. So what we do is we take, we treat a person in five different levels. One is anamaya kosha, the physical body. So we take care of their asana practice, we take care of their diet, sleep and their the cleansing, the bowel movements, everything.

32:56 And then in pranamaya kosha, we teach a lot of pranayamas, like there is nadi shodan pranayam. I see in Ubud lot of people doing so many kundalini, this, this, that. But in the end they are not balancing the energy. The pranamaya kosha is not balanced.

33:19 So then they go like either, you know, Sunway, that means more and more and more in energy. Then in the end it will blast off or it goes like very sensitive. Oh, I'm so sensitive to this person, this kind of behavior, because the pranamaya kosha is not balanced.

33:40 Then manomaya Kosha, the mind body, we deal with studying scriptures, Jappas, the mantra chanting, and with Nanamaya Kosha, the intellectual body, we discuss all of this. You know, like why this is happening because the little bit of intellectual discussion is also needed.

34:05 After all, we have so many questions without intellectual discussion, you know. And in the end, Anandamaya, a lot of fun activities like Greeda yoga playing continuously bring out the inner child, the cancer patients, the, you know, we used to have laughter yoga and and karma yoga.

34:31 Make them do small, small, small work. And just to get started, the small thing they can do is maybe move a pen. So that itself is enough for that person, you know, like like that just to get started. We used to have this approach. Right.

34:52 So small, gradual and this is the therapy. Yes, yes to help. This is the yoga therapy technique and like you know, people come up with some problem like depression. The way to treat is just a good yoga teacher should go to their level and not giving a task.

35:17 OK, you go climb Everest and you had to do this, this, this. Then he will not be interested. Maybe he went to depression because he couldn't finish a book or so you give a small, small task or small, small like a, you know, small, small change. Let's say in Japan they have something, something beautifully.

35:45 They say it's called as a Kaizen. So doing a small change, a simple shift of energy and then that brings like whole different of, you know, happiness in the day. Like if somebody wants to stop smoking, maybe instead of full cigarette, you just have, you know, have a maybe have a small puff of smoke and then you stop it there. That's a progress instead of hold back in the morning, you you just stop there.

36:34 So this kind of really a teacher is to getting into that level of what a person is going through. That's what is the therapies. That's great. I mean, I can relate a lot to that because as my job as a physiotherapist or physical therapist to help people with the the rehabilitation process, it needs to be activities, movements, these types of things that are at what they're capable of doing and it needing to be the low amount. And then progressively, slowly

37:09 and gradually progressing that challenge to eventually get to what we would consider more activities of daily living so that they can return back to normal function. The challenging thing that I notice, and maybe you can comment is that it's hard for people to just do the little thing. Sometimes it's like they want to, they want the faster result. How do I get to the end quicker?

37:29 Like if I just do this, you know, little thing like how is this going to lead me to fixing my problem? So there's a little bit of a mental block for some people, at least in my experience. Oh yes. Did you notice that as well? Absolutely that that is because of these stress, because the ongoing stress and that should be dealt with. We have this technique called cyclic meditation and systematic way of slowing down.

37:57 Like if if somebody stressed, the best way that they slow down is connect to the body. And how do you connect to the body? It's not easy to connect to the body. I touch, I connect, maybe in the physical level, but we have breath, breath and movement together. Like very simple ways.

38:23 Bring your palms closer and then touch all your fingers and just this simple mudra of inhale. Very very slowly you separate your fingers and exhale very very slowly, bringing the fingers closer. So like that the the breath and movement synchronized slow and steady like a turtle.

39:05 Yeah. So then the the the first step becomes easier for them. OK. Did you notice a lot of, I mean, I assume in there there might have been more receptivity to trying or experiencing some of this stuff? Have you tried to apply some of this with like, let's say, more of a Western mind who might not feel like, what is this doing? If they're putting their hands together and they're like breathing, they're like, what's the point of this? Like, you know, have you ever

39:32 had to come across something like that and have any experience or something to share? I think so. For the Western mind, they will I I have seen and noticed this, that they have hard time trusting. Yeah. So whether this is working or not, whether you know, but what's working is working. It's working for everyone.

40:00 So the Western mind would definitely accept the practice because I'm not asking them to, you know, trust me. I'm asking them to trust yourself and your your practice, what you are doing and. Like definitely as we see how yoga works is fastest breath synchronization with the body movement and then slowly, slowly the progress, the small small progress, the small small slowing down in the middle.

40:35 We can add chanting, We can add like I do a little bit of shamanic drums and I I myself go and chant sometime for them. Like if I taught a person who was in the bed at the age of 80, he had some kind of, you know, kidney failure and he gave up all his hopes. Like, I just want to die.

41:02 So then I go with Bhagavad Gita and just chant Bhagavad Gita for him. And after a few days he got interested that OK, I'm ready to do yoga. So a teacher if the teacher is doing something, it is seen and they will trust what is happening.

41:27 In Hindi we say Jo dikta hai wo dikta hai means you know what is. If some something is very beautiful and nice, that will be definitely, you know, sold. It's kind of like if you're, if you're truly and authentically being the teacher and you're the student will either appear or become ready. Yeah, at some point.

41:51 Right, that's what I'm. That's what I'm hearing you say. Yes, yes, absolutely. So with that and, and to like translate it another way, it's like you can help people by being the example, by, by being the thing to witness and, and doing it confidently and doing it with consistency and doing it with full commitment. And then when that's seen or that's witnessed, that's when people will, they'll get curious about it and be like, maybe I do want to learn more about this.

42:18 Maybe I'm, maybe I, maybe I shut that down too quickly. Like what is this? Like, why is he still doing it? You know what I mean? That kind of thing. Yeah, yeah, absolutely. Like, you know, air Hostess greeting and when you're entering the plane, welcome, welcome. So much smile is there, but that smile is just just their job. Maybe it's not real, right?

42:40 But you see some air Hostess, they they greet you with so much love, especially maybe you see in the this side Asian side. Yeah. And you feel that this is real smile and something which is real definitely be sold. And people really trust that. A trust is when I say I trust that that means I'm doubting my trust because trust is a very natural way of connection. If I put it into words, it's it's already Trust is broken. Interesting.

43:19 It makes me think of like organic food and non organic food. Like it's organic food is just food, right? But now we have to call it something different because there's so much food that's now, now I won't say poisoned, but not as mineral in vitamin efficient. Yeah, yeah, absolutely.

43:39 Yeah. Cool. This is really fun and interesting. So just to kind of continue along with the story. So you're learning about you'll get therapy, you're applying these principles, which is really interesting. And I'm sure there's so much more we could talk about that we've even talked about training and like how to actually like help people with these types of things.

43:57 But I'm also curious to know more of like your story, like what happened after that? Like, did you study this for years and then did you work with this? I studied this for three years and I have to do some research also to get my bachelor degree and did some research on pranayam and mantras. How does pranayam affect the people who have back pain? How the back pain can be dealt with just simple breathing, breathing techniques and some of the mantras. How the the there is a mantra

44:37 called Maham Rityunjaya mantra which has the highest healing potentials. How this mantra actually heals back pain? So this was my research and I studied with different group of people, like people who are in in the 20s, you know, young and who have, you know, acute back pain, how it's helping them. Some people who are working very hard, like policeman and he had some kind of pain in the hip area, right hip. And like this, we studied with different, different people and figured out what kind of

45:24 practice would really help if somebody is in pain. And the best practice was the mind level practice because the problem was not in the body. It was definitely coming from the stress. And this, this is the need of our, I feel that everybody need to take care of the, the systematic way of slowing down and literally planning their, you know, a day for a better sleep than a better workout that that would really set a person's lifestyle in, in this period of

46:12 time, I think. And then so did you after this, were you like applying that to a lot of patients for quite some time? And then and then I'm, I'm trying to get to the point where how you got to Bali, right? Because you're obviously here now and this is part of your life, but. I got called to Goa to teach in the 300 over YTT. So my topic was philosophy and first time teaching western students.

46:45 There were 13 Western girls from Europe and US all over the world and I had very difficult situation because I was only being a student. I was never a teacher. I could teach asanas, but I could never teach this philosophy because it needs some kind of experience.

47:08 It demands something from you. It's not easy to teach philosophy intellectually. You can organize and teach, but by experience wise to teach, you have to really go through that. So I went there and first few classes was a big challenge for me. I had to mug up everything and just just give it to them like that.

47:33 And then in the end everybody liked it and they were talking about energy and your energy was very pure. And people used to come and share their their trauma, their childhood traumas. And all I used to do is just listen. And in the end, it was I was, I had a such a big exposure that this kind of knowledge is very useful for the Western world. I thought this is just a useless knowledge and I was being a bookworm and, you know, studying my scriptures. Then I realized maybe these

48:17 people need me more than teaching in India. So from there I just started traveling from, I worked in Goa for one year and I somehow ended up in Bali as just as a traveler. And I went to Byron's class and Paul's class. I used to love that class.

48:40 Like he talks a little bit about Vedanta and he doesn't know that. What is that Vedanta? Vedanta is like end of the knowledge and I see Byron talks a lot about the practical knowledge and Vedantic stuff in his class like the three dimensions, talking about connection polarities. All of this is in Vedanta.

49:09 So as I studied in in Gurukula, some kind of a connection happened there that, oh, how does he teach philosophy in power yoga class? And he's doing that and he's doing so many things in, in one one and a half hour. So that really inspired me to go back to the classes.

49:34 And then I got hired in one of the yoga school here called East West. And that's where I work. Somehow Bali is treating me very nicely with all good people. Yeah, Yeah, it's great. It's great to have you here. I mean, I love hanging out with you.

49:53 I mean, you've you've even interesting when I first met you, I don't know if it was the first time a year ago, maybe like several times after that, but we somehow ended up talking about the Ayangar belt or the. The Oh yeah.

50:08 The hammock, as I, I call it. And you said you were going to bring me one back from from India and you did. And then I have one that's sitting in my house now and I hang upside down several times a day. And before, before, like you, when you gave it to me, I was using it just I didn't really know what I was doing.

50:28 I just like laid in it. I kind of braced myself and wrap my legs around. And then I would hang upside down and just, you know, get the benefits of being upside down. And then on my birthday actually, which was a little while ago, you came over and before anyone else showed up and you showed me a few things on what to do when I'm hanging upside down, including some pranayama and some, so you know, some mantras and stuff like that and guiding me through it.

50:50 And then I realized how much more powerful it was when you actually had some more structure and some things that I could do there. So now I do it every day and I like, I, it's like my addiction. It's like my coffee now. Like I wake up and I like after I settle a little bit, I'm like, OK, time to hang upside down and then I'll go hang upside down for a few minutes, 5 minutes. It's like therapy for me.

51:09 I love it. Oh yes, this Iyengar technique is absolutely like very well researched and so much health benefit, right? Like we don't need coffee now like let's hang upside down right and chant some mantras and whatever we do all the Kriyas or mantras or any breathing technique upside down. It's double benefit, yeah.

51:36 And so much energy flowing naturally. No need to do bastrika or kabalbathi or breathwork. Nothing. Just hang in there. Yeah, Yeah, Just hang in there. Exactly. Yeah, it's great. I love it. And you described it to me as, you know, if you're sitting in meditation and, you know, let's just say we're going through the chakras and the energies rising and falling and going up and down. And as it goes above the crown or so on, then it kind of like it just goes versus when you're

52:09 upside down, you're, you're also receiving the energy from the Earth, the core. So that's what kind of enhances its effect to some degree. Yeah, that's what you explained to me. Is that right? The upside down when when head is below the hip.

52:25 So what happens is the Earth's of the gravitational pull, He's supporting your, the subtle body. What happens usually when the energy rises, let's say you're sitting and then you're trying to rise the energy by doing breathwork or whatever, There will be some kind of difficulty because there will be heart chakra is blocked or sacral chakra is blocked. There is some kind of a restriction is there, but when we do upside down, it's natural flow because your posture gets perfectly aligned.

53:13 We put the sacrum support with the belt and that natural shape of the spine and we after 5 minutes, 10 minutes, the senses will relax. Then there is naturally pratyahara is happening means senses don't want to. If you are sitting like this, we have a habit.

53:35 OK, let's have a coffee, let's listen to some music. So this kind of sense going outwardliness is there, but when we are there, it's kind of the senses slowly, slowly start to go inward. That's the game changer. Yeah, Pratya Hara, the withdrawal of senses.

53:56 So I'll, I'll, I'm going to tell a quick story about this and then, then maybe we'll, we'll clean it up. And well, I'd love to have another episode with you as well, possibly to talk more because very interesting things that you've learned. And I want to apply it.

54:10 But when I hung upside down recently and I told you about this, I did it for about 10 minutes and I had earbuds in. I was listening to mantras and I noticed I had an, it was, I got up too fast. First of all, just for the audience to know I got up too fast.

54:25 It was a bit dangerous. And then I laid down and, you know, my body eventually found its equilibrium, but I did almost pass out. So don't just hang upside down. You know, there is a little bit of some understanding to, to this. But what I did notice when I sat up is that my hearing almost like disappeared.

54:42 And at first I started to panic because I was like, whoa, I can't hear. Like everything was like dimmed. And then I was just like, Oh my God, what's happening? Am I dying? Like, right, this is, I've never experienced this before and I didn't have someone there to guide me. So I was just like, my brain was filling in the space and it was beautiful because why?

55:01 It turned from panic to gratitude very quickly and love because I was like, Oh my God, I can't hear anything. What's happening? And then I just surrendered. I was like, I'm just going to be. And I was laying down in Shavasana at this point because I wanted to settle my system. And then all of a sudden, the sounds that I could hear all of a sudden became so much more powerful because it went from like I could hear nothing to, Oh my God, I, I hear the bird like way over there.

55:26 Oh my God, I, I can't believe I'm hearing that bird over there. And then, oh, there's another sound over there. And it's almost like it started to come in and my body was able to, my brain, my nervous system was able to kind of digest this information.

55:38 Like almost like it was for the first time or like it was new and it was like a beautiful experience. So yeah, I'm just sharing that because I to me, that was super profound. And one of the reasons why now I'm just like, OK, I want to keep hanging upside down because it's obviously doing something good.

55:54 Yeah. Absolutely. The it's kind of a psychedelic effect, right? A natural psychedelic effect. And basically when the in Patanjali's yoga we have dharana, which is sharp concentration building technique, then comes dehana.

56:16 Dehana literally means in English we can say meditation and this is like uninterrupted flow towards you wherein concentration is US towards something, maybe music or reading or whatever it is, but this is something coming towards you like we can hear the sound of the birds.

56:43 We can literally expand the mind beyond the horizon because when you close your eyes, you can literally expand how much ever you want. There is no limit for that. So this kind of expansion, the Patanjali says there should be Tanata means an effortlessness doing this.

57:13 And that effortlessness comes from the emptiness. When we completely empty ourselves, like OK, what's happening with the first thing that happens to body is it gets into shock because it always had thoughts, always had some kind of things to do. And now you completely, you know, zoned out and went blank then oh, what's happening here?

57:41 But you realized it through your experience that how the things will start connecting to you. The birds will connect, the trees will connect, the nature will connect even more and it it is connected. Just that we, we don't realize that. That's why we need yoga.

58:04 That's great, thank you for that explanation. So if you do want to hang upside down, you can get curious about it, but don't do it for too long and don't get up too quick otherwise. Don't get excited. Yeah, don't get too excited. Don't have any expectations either. That's probably an important one. But yeah, I'd say it was very basically I'm saying thank you for sharing, sharing that with me and and bringing me an authentic belt, which was really

58:28 cool. So I think we can maybe like wrap up this episode, but I'd love to, excuse me, have you back next week to continue a little bit more about some of the things that you've learned. And it sounds like what I'm hearing from you is you've learned so many things and you weren't really sure what to do with it.

58:45 And you're like, oh, I learned, I studied, I researched. And then you kind of were like, now I'm bored, right? But then you realize there's people in the world, you know, you describe them as, you know, western people and, and I agree, the Western world is a doesn't have that type of teaching as easily accessible. So now you're excited to share that and to be of service in that way, which I think is beautiful. And you're doing that in trainings. And I would love to have you

59:10 back to continue to share if you're willing to, to talk more about the philosophy, mantras, Pranayyam, even the yoga therapy or even the sutras. So yeah, maybe we can do that over a few, few episodes and continue to share and connect with our audience. How's that sound?

59:26 Thank you so much. Great. Awesome. So thank you so much, Akshay. Thank you everyone for listening and tuning in today. If you do have any questions or you want to reach out, you can always do so at podcast.goingproyoga.com.

59:39 You can also find us on Instagram going pro yoga, of course, and just shoot us a message. How about you? How would if someone wanted to reach out to you, Akshay, and connect? What would be the best way to do that? They can message me through Instagram.

59:50 Akshay Bhat Yoga. OK, we'll have that in the show notes, in case you're wondering how to spell that. AKSHAYBHAT Yoga. Yeah, cool. Yeah, we'll add that in there. Otherwise, thank you so much, Akshay. Thank you, Dhanyavad.

1:00:06 And thank you everyone for tuning in this week and we'll see you next week. Bye for now. All right, before you go, let me just tell you about the going proyoga.com platform. So right now you can go to goingproyoga.com and check it out for free for seven days where you can actually learn more about yoga in the ways of alignment, cueing, sequencing, yoga anatomy.

1:00:27 So that if you've done a 200 hour teacher training and you want to continue to learn, practice and grow, this platform is definitely for you. So I definitely suggest checking it out goingroyogacom right now. You can try it out for free for seven days.