More than fifty nations gathered for a celebration of Yoga with Gauranga Das, Sadhvi Bhagawati Saraswati, Brandon Bays and Kia Miller on transforming pain into purpose through Yoga in the ongoing 37th festival at Parmarth Niketan on the second day.
Yoga classes ranging from early morning Sadhana to sacred music, raagas, yoga, ayurveda and wellness sessions by a diverse array of presenters concluding with the live concert by the famous spiritual rapper MC Yogi were part of the festival. Over a thousand participants from 50 nations, 75 yoga teachers from 25 countries are presenting at the yoga festival.
"Yoga is not what we do; it is who we are," said Swami Chidanand Saraswati. "It is what we practice not only on the mat, but off the mat, practice every day of life. We are in the world capital of yoga, where we were all given keys freely, with no copyrights. Take the keys wherever you are and use them to open the locks so that light may shine onto millions and millions on earth. Yoga is a union. That starts with you. You are the key, you must look into yourself.”
"Yoga is the only solution to everything that ails our planet today," said Sadhvi Bhagawati Saraswati. "We have conflicts based on race, skin color, political party, sexual orientation, gender. If I feel separate from other people, from the planet, I bring suffering to others and the earth. Yoga is not the union of the nose to the knees. It is the union of the self to the divine, and the divine in all.”
Some of the brightest minds on the mind-body connection gathered for an insightful plenary on “Inner Alchemy- transforming pain into purpose,” which featured Gauranga Das Prabhu, and other esteemed guests, emphasizing how to shift your perspective on suffering, using it as a catalyst for growth, resilience, and meaningful change.
Brandon Bays added giving a scientific explanation “Part of the gift of the healing journey was I was guided to find a way for all of us to go inside of our body and get access to something called cell emery. When we feel a strong emotion we suppress it, it releases a qualifying biochemistry into the bloodstream that will go to certain cell receptors and block them, and if overtime illness happens, it happens in part of the body where the cells are blocked. She further added, when emotions are felt freely, our cell receptors remain open.
Dr. N. Ganesh Rao, the founder of ACT Yoga who, holding a Ph.D. in Philosophy as well as multiple diplomas in Naturopathy and Yoga Education, and is a Yoga Chikitsa Acharya, led a powerful session on exploring how the sound of Om can bring peace, clarity, and balance to our lives.
“The first sutra of the Patanjali Yoga Sutra essentially means that Yoga is of the now – Yoga can only take place in the present moment. Om is the primordial sound that takes us back home to ourselves. There is great significance of OM in Yoga so it is essential for participants across the world to understand the roots and tradition of Yoga,” Dr. Rao said.
Gurmukh Kaur Khalsa, the disciple of Yogi Bhajan who founded Yogi Bhajan’s first yoga center in the United States, led an ecstatic cleansing our inner self class after sunrise, providing a sacred space for healing and self-reflection, helping each participant to connect more deeply to their true essence, encouraging them to release any negativity and embrace their highest potential.
Leading a powerful session Gurmukh Kaur Khalsa shared, “How much thunder you have in you, how much power you have in you, comes from the heart. The only way I've found to heal yourself and to heal the world is through love. Love has become overused in the West. Love isn't always sweet. Sometimes it's tough love. Sometimes you have to speak your truth. This comes from the navel, and then it goes to your heart. Don't be too quick to say, 'love you, love you.' Pause and ask yourself, 'do I mean it, can I feel love in my soul?' If you do, that is the thunder power of love.”