Bhagavan Das
When I read that Bhagavan Das was going to be at Laughing Lotus for two events — Kirtan and a Bhakti Yoga workshop, I didn’t believe it. In the past year and half I have found it very challenging to DIY an affordable yoga education. The elite world of renowned teachers are often difficult to come by. You have to diligently check their website for when they (briefly) come to NYC, or be willing (and able) to travel to a pricey retreat, or be willing to pay upwards of ~$100 per class as I did for the NYC Yoga Journal Conference. Not all teachers are so exclusive — but for a practice that’s about freedom and sharing, it does seem to carry a weighty price tag. So I was beside myself that Bhagavan Das would not only be giving two events at our local studio, but at $35 it was practically free.
It was an incredibly moving experience to chant with him. Sound’s vibrations resonates within you, and as you harmonize with your neighbors a deeply moving connection is formed, which intensifies with time. He led us through an exercise of clearing the chakras through meditation and a kind of kirtan. And I realized how much I’ve been neglecting sound as form of healing. It had been so long since I had intoned the sounds of the chakras, I’d practically forgotten them, and I could actually feel the rusty energies trying to move through my internal molasses. While a year’s worth of neglect can’t be overcome in one workshop, there was an improvement in the inner energies, or possibly it was just my giddiness at being able to share a connection with a teacher who up until then, existed only on my iPod
I’d like to share some of things he said, but actually hearing him is a different experience. So despite what I just wrote about weighty price tags, I strongly encourage anyone who has the opportunity to share a practice with him to go out of your way, maybe travel, maybe spend some money and just hear him. It’s worth it.
This isn’t a verbatim accounting, but it might capture some insights:
- The body is the temple
- Cleanse the chakras through their sound
- All the talk, the pointless of talk of trying to figure it all out, turn the energy inward.
- Devotion is the way, it frees the chakras
- Time is short and it’s later then you think
- Tapas is the discipline to do it over and over again until you burn with the meaning of it.
- Do your daily practice, practice to detach yourself from this world (from ego).
- As above so below
