TESTIMONIALS🔗

I am sharing my story, not because I was asked to, and certainly not because I am unique. I simply hope that if anything I share is helpful to even one person then I have achieved a good thing. Most, if not all, of what I write here has already been communicated to my yoga instructor, but I am choosing to put it all in one letter.

My name is Mike. I am likely not the stereotypical yoga follower. I am 47 and grew up in Wyoming, not a hotbed of yoga to be sure. Everything I thought I knew of yoga was not what I experienced with Nithya Yoga. On February 16, 2008 I fell while mountain biking, fracturing my left scapula and ribs. While recovering, I began to explore less hard impact ways to return to a more healthful and active life.

On April 30ᵗʰ, after doing some checking about yoga, I sent the same email to six yoga studios with my contact phone number. Three never responded. Two emailed back, and one actually took the time to call me. This was Gilbert Yoga in Arizona. It took me until August 28th to finally get the courage to actually go there. I picked the session after talking with her, and I decided to try the one called Nithya Yoga For Being.

Knowing fully well how long it would take for me to drive there, and that I was required to be early to fill out a short form and not come in late, I left with exactly enough time to make it with no room to spare, hoping traffic, lights, etc. would give me the excuse to not go in. I hit every single green light, and made it to the studio with over ten minutes to spare.

The first session had such an impact on me and afterwards, as everyone was talking and rolling up his or her mats, I kind of sat hunched over. My teacher came over and asked me how I felt. I simply told her that I was okay but I was trying not to cry. She said it was okay and asked if I wanted to talk. I mumbled 'Yes, sure', and everyone else left. We sat in the front and talked. The tears started and came out quite heavily. As we talked, I looked at the teacher and could see her quite plainly through the tears and simply blurted out, 'You really care'. Not a question, but a true realization. She said 'Yes', which I knew was the total truth and she said she wanted to hug me. We knelt and she hugged me and I began shaking quite hard, almost violently. She said she did not want me driving like that, and then she moved behind me and simply placed her hands on my head. I have no idea how long it was, but an absolutely incredible peace filled me. When I finally left, it was such calm and peace. I waited four days to do anything, as I am not a knee-jerk reaction type, but then knew this was something very powerful and real.

I bought a yoga class pass that first night knowing this was not a whim but very real. I have been on two different high blood pressure medications, and after my third Nithya Yoga session, I had a check-up with my doctor. The blood pressure was so low he actually thought I might have doubled my dose. I told him 'No', and he had me come back later in the day to test it again. The end result was that he took me off one of the pills.

He didn't understand it but I still shared with him what I felt what the reason: Nithya Yoga. There is no other explanation. Nothing else in my life had changed. I have invited friends, co-workers and such to this experience of Nithya Yoga and more. I truly believe it is not all about the poses, which was my original conception of yoga. I feel that without the first part, the meditation especially, I would not have found what I sought in a typical western yoga class. I told my Nithya Yoga teachers and firmly believe that while my birth date might be 9/29/61, I completely feel that my LIFE date, when I realized what life can and is truly is all about, is 08/28/08 - the date that is now on my shirt that I wear quite proudly to every Nithya Yoga session. I have not experienced the Life Bliss Program yet, but fully plan to, as I feel it is an essential part of life.

This has changed my life to the point that I plan nothing else for the night. I get to go to Nithya Yoga. I am early to the classes now, usually by at least twenty minutes. I cannot risk missing out.

Being a yoga practitioner for over ten years, Nithya Yoga caught my attention, especially when the answer to my question of what to expect in a Nithya Yoga class was answered with, 'The best advice is not to expect anything.' The only pre-requisite was to enter the class with an open mind and innocence.

The experience of Nithya Yoga was so profound and the effect stayed with me long after I rolled up my yoga mat. It was as if the vibrant silence I had created in class became a constant companion in my every day life.

To my surprise, after the centering meditation using a breath awareness technique, the class started with a dynamic meditation technique. It was only later that I understood how important it is to clean our inner space with such a powerful technique before we start the practice of postures and breathing. On the physical level I experienced being fully inside the boundary of my body. I learned that yoga is not about the perfection of the poses but the fluidity of the body moving with the awareness of the breath and a centered mind.

In my previous yoga classes, a selection of great music helped me get into the mood of the class and the Nithya Yoga class happened with a lot of silence. The only sound was our teacher's gentle voice guiding us through postures. Her powerful Sanskrit chanting of the healing mantras still resonates within me. As our class was doing a series of sun salutations (surya namaskar) and specific postures for the Energy centres of the body the only sound heard was my own deep oceanic breath echoing down the throat. This experience of uniting the body, the breath and the mind brought me deeper and deeper into myself.

On the mental level, the noisy mind became quiet, calm, and relaxed. My restless eyes were effortlessly turned inward instead of outward with their usual wandering and looking at how everybody else is doing and what everybody else is wearing. Clarity of thought simply happened.

A Nithya Yoga class has it all, from intense movement to deep stillness. I learned how my body is shaped according to my belief system and how my thoughts and beliefs have a profound effect on the functioning and wellbeing of my body and mind.

One of the most important aspects of Nithya Yoga and one of my favourite parts is the Body Gratitude Meditation where the body can relax, rejuvenate and heal as I give thanks and appreciate the uniqueness of my body. With Nithya Yoga I experienced transformation at all levels - body, mind and being.

Thank you, Swami Nithyananda for bringing back the Inner Science of Patanjali!

Christina James, RN Pullman, WA

I experienced Nithya Yoga for the first time during a twenty-one day meditation program, Inner Awakening, offered by the Nithyananda Mission. I have taken several yoga classes before and have even been on a week long yoga retreat in the past. Still, I was a little apprehensive about what to expect and how I would get through the daily classes.

The entire experience was a beautiful surprise for me! The Nithya Yoga system approaches yoga from a completely different perspective. Instead of focusing just on struggling to get in and out of postures, I really enjoyed each of the steps leading up to the actual poses – the centering meditation, setting an intention for my practice that day, and awakening the experience of bliss in my body. It was all very new to me and felt quite wonderful. I was delighted to see that whatever my body could manage was perfect and the visualizations actually helped me to go deeper into the postures and the feeling of being aligned – body, mind and being. The instructors were amazing ambassadors of this ancient science, so calm, knowledgeable and blissful themselves. The greatest benefit was the lasting, blissful effect it had on me each day. Learning that no matter what I'm doing, the intention that I have sets the stage for what is recorded in my body created a big change in my awareness and thinking as I move through my activities. I am very glad that I was introduced to Nithya Yoga and look forward to experiencing it more and more in my daily life.