Student Experiences
When I started practicing Kundalini Yoga six or seven years ago, I had no idea of its significance. What was foremost in my mind in the early years was ‘what is the point of putting my body in all these unnatural poses, and how can saying mantras signify anything?’ I kept up the practice in spite of my outer mind’s constant stream of complaints because I felt an inward push that ‘kind of’ said to me ‘keep going, fake what you cannot yet feel’. But I was truly fortunate in that the teacher of the classes I attend is a genuine leader who provides her students with the opportunity to develop their own inner connection and thus become their own teachers and leaders to lead them toward an unfoldment of the God within them.
Throughout the years, the classes touched chords of heartfelt experience that made my outer consciousness understand the reality of its own limits and appreciate that it has its own inner connection. What I have gained on this journey (and it is a journey, not an afternoon hike) is that the pain of putting my body in different positions and holding them for minutes, sometimes many minutes, came from the resistance of my outer mind. Gradually, as I do my practice, my mind continues to suspend its disbelief and resistance, and thereby becomes open to new heartfelt experiences. Every year my resistance continues to diminish, little step by little step. My outer ego-consciousness gains new understanding that results in the realization that my Kundalini yoga practice is in fact a practical pathway to a life that is ever more worth living.
—Edward Averill
For years now, I watched as people around me began studying kundalini Yoga, and even though I saw how much they thrived, how devoted they were to the practice, and how beautiful they looked, I guess I wasn't yet ready to embark on the journey. Then, one class with my teacher Jivan Mukta convinced me that I had finally found the road I had been looking for all these years.
My fellow students have become not just my closest friends
, they have become my family. And although the work is challenging, and
the sacrifices in
comfort and familiarity are sometimes demanding, I have every intention
of sticking to my practice and our weekly classes without fail. The richness,
the strength, the certainty that what I am doing is right and WORKS for
me, are like beacons lighting my path every step of the way. I have become
"yoked" to this particular form of yoga, to its power, grace and
beauty, and my teacher has become the greatest guide and inspiration of
my life. Try her class just once, and even though it may be hard at first,
don't give up - you will never be the same again. You will find the changes
you have been seeking occurring in deep, lasting, and marvelous ways. Above
all, you will find that this really works!
—Dharampalr
Finding my way to this KY class?to my teacher and my sangha?is a continuing answer to a whole constellation of questions and problems and prayers.
I had never done any kind of yoga nor meditation (except for
prayer under the aegis of my protestant upbringing) when I attended my first
KY class a little over fifteen months ago at the urgent insistence of a
dear
friend. There I found an atmosphere of solemn yet welcoming reverence, inviting
enough to overcome my fear of this new unknown.
After nearly three hours of class, I didn't know quite what had happened, but I knew that it was powerful. For me, it was an integrative and connective yet uncanny experience. I sat in stunned silence sharing a meal with a group of strangers with whom I felt strangely and deeply familiar. It was like returning home after a prolonged absence and it was also the beginning of another kind of journey.
After just that one class my appetite and eating habits began
to change. Most significantly, for the first time in my adult life I stopped
craving alcohol. I was startled and incredulous that such a change could
result from one KY class. Now I realize that, far from a "result"
or
endpoint, my experience was one (significant) moment in a continuing process
of change of becoming who I AM.
—siri simran
I had been seeking a yoga teacher for about two years when I met Jiwan Mukta. Within a week I found myself in Pittsburgh attending her Kundalini Yoga class without any idea of what Kundalini Yoga was. Once in class I was in total awe of the energy, grace, and power I felt during the kriyas, meditations and especially the mantras that we chanted, that were all part of the experience of the class. I knew that powerful things happened during class, but I wasn't quite prepared for my first experience of this energy.
To begin with, my shivasana was rather peculiar. As I lay in corpse pose at the end of the set we had just done, allowing everything to unwind, and moving deeper and deeper into total relaxation, I kept smelling garbage, really strong smelling garbage. I kept thinking the garbage cans for the building where class was held must be kept right under the open windows of the room we were occupying. I was really put out, because the smell was so intense it was actually interfering with my relaxation, and changing the entire experience of my shivasana.
Afterwards, there was time for us to discuss and share the experiences we had had during the class. One student described smelling delicious Chinese food and another had the experience of smelling fragrant flowers. Imagine my confusion! I was too embarrassed to mention what had happened to me in front of the class and later found an opportunity to speak with Jiwan Mukta about it. She told me that I must have done a great job of releasing during class because what I had been smelling was my own garbage! Since that time I have come across many of Yogi Bajan's writings in which he speaks of the need for us to rid ourselves of the garbage we continually carry around, and the many ways in which the power of this practice can help us to do exactly that.
In that first class I was also suffering from an old neck injury that made it impossible for me to raise both of my arms at the same time over my head without having to have a chiropractic adjustment the next day. I credit my KY practice with among other things, enabling me to now hold both my hands up over my head without the problems I once experienced from doing so. My experience of this practice is that it has truly helped me on so many levels, in such powerful ways, that I am grateful it is a part of my life.
If you are seeking to clear out your garbage and heal your SELF at all levels [spiritual, mental, physical], Kundalini Yoga will enable you to do so with ease, grace, and speed. Sat Nam.
—Peggy Pavlik
I feel every Retreat is like coming to an oasis during some long journey through a dessert. Each Retreat has its own flavor, its own essence, presenting itself for me to reach and leading me along in the building classes of preparation, leading me in my daily practice, in my daily life and the writing of manifestations and releases germinating in my mind. Retreat begins before I even get to the place where it will be held. I watch the days leading to it like that great vacation coming and all my friends will be there, except that’s not really it. There is a fantastic celebration of life and sometimes chocolate cake, but what is it that I am really doing? I am looking into my life for what I am doing that is no longer serving me. What do I do everyday that I continue that doesn’t get me what I truly desire or feel is true in my life? What empty rituals do I tell myself I am? What is it that I can create in my life that is fulfilling? Retreat is that oasis but it is in no way what I have thought of as “Retreat”. Retreat is the shedding of the skin of illusion. It’s the dropping of all the distracting I do to keep myself from who I am. It is this letting go that is the long awaited relief that makes Retreat the oasis.