At 9am sharp we entered the gate of the Ramamani Iyengar Memorial Yoga Institute in Pune, and our visit couldn’t start any better as we directly ran into Guruji B.K.S. Iyengar, who was in a great mood. He let us attend his 2 and half hours of self practice in the main shala. We were…
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The Yoga Institute, Mumbai
Close to 1,000 people come to this yoga center everyday. Every minute the door opens, letting people go in and out. There are yoga classes for men, women, couples, children, companies, policemen, everyone! The Yoga Institute is a lively place. “It is like the shade of a big tree”, says Rachel about the deep-rooted atmosphere at…
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Leaving beautiful Bihar
5am and no power cut today, wonderful! Everything works out, and Coni could even shoot the missing asana class. At 6am we listened to a last beautiful morning chanting before hopping into a taxi to Patna, the capital city of Bihar, 200 km away from here. After 3 days at the Bihar School of Yoga,…
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Meeting Swami Suryaprakash
Our schedule follows the ashram life – early to bed, early to rise and always inside the ashram. Our visit to the Bihar School of Yoga was announced quite late (too late), and this Monday we were busy trying to catch Swami Suryaprakash, the director of the Bihar School of Yoga, for an interview. In…
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Sunday at the Bihar School of Yoga
We got lucky! Our train got enough delay and we arrived at the Bihar School of Yoga (BSY) shortly before 6am – we didn’t have to hang around the city before the ashram opened. Sunday is also day off in the ashram, which doesn’t mean everyone can go out. The normal programme is reduced to…
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Banaras Hindu University, Varanasi
With a couple of hours delay we (Heide and Otto) reached Varanasi. After a fast check-in, we headed to the famous Banaras Hindu University (BHU), one of India’s largest campuses. Professor K.K. Sharma (Sankhyayoga Darshan and Vyakarana, Indian Philosophy) welcomed us and invited us to watch an asana class for Indian students of the 4-week…
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Morarji Desai National Institute of Yoga, Delhi
Today we visited the Morarji Desai National Institute of Yoga (MDNIY), the only national institute of yoga, and a place in the heart of India’s capital where you can get a very complete postgraduate degree in yoga studies. Before the asana class started, we could see and learn how proper nose and stomach cleaning are performed. A…
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Sivananda Yoga Vendanta Nataraja Center, South Delhi
From today Heide, a very experienced journalist from Germany, will join us on our journey for about 2 weeks. We will for sure benefit a lot from her professional experience. Our first center visit together is the local Sivananda Yoga Vendanta Nataraja Center in South Delhi. At the beginning of our trip, we had visited another Sivananda ashram at Neyyar Dam…
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Yog-Ganga Center for Yoga Studies, Dehradun
Today we left Rishikesh after a week along the banks of the Ganges river. Our next destination: The Yog-Ganga Center for Yoga Studies in Dehradun. Swati and Rajiv Chanchani teach Iyengar yoga, with an approach different from everything we had seen before. According to their strict philosophy, they don’t want to promote themselves, thus they only allowed…
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Luxury yoga at the Ananda
The Ananda was on today’s agenda. It was quite an ascent into the hills, 18 km away from Rishikesh. The Ananda is an old palace turned into one of the world’s best wellness resorts, spread over 100 acres. Sushant, the head of the yoga department, welcomed us with a freshly brewed coffee and introduced us to the philosophy…
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Parmath Niketan, Rishikesh
It was a rainy morning for a change, and luckily we had no early appointment. Our next meeting was at 2:30pm with Bhagvati at the Parmarth Niketan where no programme was running at the moment due to the upcoming yoga festival. Still, we could visit the facilities and see some of the 150 boys who study there, performing asanas near…
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