Yoga Alliance Teacher Training India

What does yoga mean? Surrender, peace, acceptance, letting go, interconnectedness, flexibility, being grounded, openness, the suspension of judgement, a mind-body connection, balance... These were just some of the answers given to this question when asked on the fist day of teacher training. The answers were as diverse as the students. We'd come from Canada, Japan, Australia, Malaysia, China, Uruguay, Germany, The United Kingdom, The United States, The Czech Republic, Taiwan, and other places as well. We had different backgrounds, careers and experiences. We spoke different languages. But we'd all traveled by air and train and bus and car for many hours to reach a city in the foothills of the majestic Himalayas, on the banks of the sacred Ganges where we would become one. The personal journeys and paths that led us to Rishikesh varied, but our purpose was the same. Yoga. The word yoga literally means 'oneness' or 'unity'. It's Sanskrit origin ...

A Sadu crossing one of Rishikesh's bridges across the Ganga Every morning, every night, and seemingly all day long... people gather at the river Ganges, cup her water in their hands, lift it, and let it fall back to her. Since arriving in Rishikesh, we have seen men in loincloths gather at the edge of the river to bathe and give blessings, women washing their faces and saris in reverence to the water, and even children swimming out in the depths, refreshed and laughing upon their return. The beach in Rishikesh The Ganges is a lifeline to millions of Indians who live along its course - it is obvious that many depend on it for their daily needs. In Hinduism, it is worshiped as the goddess Ganga and seen as the most sacred river on Earth. Moving water, as in a river, is considered purifying as it both absorbs impurities and takes them away. The Mother Ganga restores order from disorder and purifies the soul. A woman drying her headscarf along the riverbank Befo...

We all seemed to have similar stories. Whether we had traveled by day, or by night, we tried to explain the racing of our hearts and the shock in our eyes, as each of our chauffeurs had dodged… by inches…  whole families riding on motor scooters, trucks packed with people to the brim, and cows that were too holy to get out of the way. The ride from Delhi was, undeniably, a roller coaster! As new faces began to gather day by day - and meal by meal - in the dining area , the racing in our hearts and the shock in our eyes turned into eloquent stories that evoked bursts of laughter into the courtyard - so strong that many of us required tissues, amusingly quite unavailable in this place that they call INDIA.  Light Traffic in Delhi I’d heard from several people that you either love or hate India. Before I shed tears of laughter in camaraderie with fellow students in Rishikesh, I wasn’t entirely sure of my preference – for, India had already led me to shed tears...