After moving back to the city where I had grown up I started to feel like doing yoga. Every day I walked to work for about 30 minutes. During most of the journey I walked in front of the sea. At that time of year it was possible to see the sun rising from within the sea. It was quite a sight…
I remembered there was a series of yoga poses called sun salutation. I searched the internet and found the series. I started practicing sun salutations every day on the sand at the beach before starting work. I really felt the need to salute the sun and give thanks for the day and the beauty that was freely offered every day.
After some time I needed to move and chose a house closer to work. A few months after moving I saw an advertisement that there was a yoga school nearby. I went to see the place and scheduled the day of the first class. The teacher explained that the style of yoga he taught was called Ashtanga Yoga. At that moment that name meant nothing to me because I had never heard of that style. So I had no prejudice in starting to practice.
To my surprise, in the first class I learned the Sun Salutation, the real series, as taught in India. I found this coincidence actually a kind of confirmation that I was on the right path and more than that, that I had somehow created a spiritual connection with the sun. Is the sun a conscious being? Did he see me as I saw him? How would that be possible from a material point of view?
These questions began to populate my mind and lead me into a realm full of new discoveries. After a few years I decided to become a yoga instructor. I called the yoga school I attended before and asked if there were any training courses. I was referred to an American teacher who had graduated with my teacher, also American. Later, after I got to know the Hare Krishna movement and after I read the Bhagavad-gita, I was surprised by the coincidence that my yoga teacher’s spiritual name is the same of the narrator of the Bhagavad-gita – Sanjaya.
“When the student is ready, the teacher will appear.”
Buddha Siddhartha Gautama
After finishing the course I opened my yoga school. I advertised, personally distributed flyers, partnered with friends, held a fire ceremony with a Brahmin from the Hare Krishna community, a disciple of Prabhupada, and in the first month I started with one student. In the following months, more students arrived, one by one.
I had previous experience teaching yoga because my parents are also yoga instructors and they used to offer free yoga lessons in a park next to our house. On the days they couldn’t go, I replaced them. It was an amazing experience because most of the students were at least 50 years old. The most amazing thing is that the oldest student was the most excited to practice and even started arriving earlier to learn the sun salutation. I feel very grateful for all these personal experiences. I hope they are useful to someone.
Sun Yoga 