Sometimes we think Kundalini Instructors are born, not made. Read on for CFH director Helena Raghubir's story about the making of a Kundalini teacher! Letter to Students from Helena Raghubir Eyre Dear Friends, Sat Nam, Please know that it is very common to have should I really do this? moments regarding teacher training. I certainly did. Students often ask how I got started with Kundalini Yoga. I discovered Kundalini, or it discovered me, as you prefer, in 1999. I had been practicing Hatha Yoga since 1993, somewhat sporadically and nowhere near expertly. I had also been going through a number of health challenges since the early 1990s. I worked about a million different jobs during that time: waitress, secretary, temp office staff, high school teacher, opera singer, gallery assistant, editor, and a few more that I can't even remember at the moment! Beginning with a desire to stabilize my physical health, which was treated unsuccessfully through allopathic medicine, I was also searching. I looked to chiropractic, holistic nutrition, homeopathy, massage therapy, light therapy, Hatha and Iyengar Yoga, and many other forms of complementary healing as I tried to improve my own condition. Because of what I learned as I searched, I had begun working very part-time as sort of a spiritual lifestyle consultant for other people. At that time, a now-defunct new age store in Minneapolis rented videos on various holistic topics. A friend rented a video on Kundalini Yoga. She and I had become something of yoga dilettantes, forever sampling the latest yoga video or website or class around town. She said, Why don't you check this one out before I return it. It's weird. It didn't really speak to me, but you might like it. As it turned out, I loved it. I loved that the teacher was, apparently, no athlete with a cut body but instead, an older woman in excellent health. I loved looking at the faces of the students practicing yoga in the video. I loved the unfamiliar chants, and that the yoga pushed one to move and keep moving, almost like dancing to a swelling piece of music. Mostly, I loved that the experience of Kundalini Yoga seemed to be changing my energy and my sensation of healthiness, right from the beginning. I looked for Kundalini Yoga teachers in Minneapolis/Saint Paul and couldn t find one. So, like a typical nerd, I went to the Internet to search for books and videos on Kundalini Yoga. Over the following months, I devoured as much Kundalini material as I could. And then gradually, without knowing what I was doing AT ALL, I began to teach Kundalini Yoga. Primarily because the students with whom I was consulting started demanding it. As in, What was that breathing thingie I heard you talking about with your boyfriend? That sounded good. Can I do that?
Then finally, a group of women said, "We're meeting at Susan s house at 6 PM on Tuesday for six weeks, and you re going to come teach us yoga. Oh, holy, crap. Thus, I taught my first Kundalini Yoga class series before I had ever been in a class with other live students and a live teacher! It was a violent case of fake it till you make it. I aped the style of the teachers in the videos and taught what they taught, hoping that my almost complete ignorance wouldn t be glaringly obvious. I did a lot of praying, as in, OK, God, if you have any intention of helping these ladies with Kundalini Yoga, you're going to have to make it happen, since I have next to no idea how to make it happen! My favorite book and video on Kundalini at the time were by Gurmukh. In her book, she wrote a little passage with such friendliness inviting anyone to stop by her studio, Golden Bridge in Los Angeles, if they were ever in the area...and even to take teacher training if they were so inclined. Hmmm. A few months before, I would have said, Yoga teacher training? HA! I'm too clumsy, inflexible, unhealthy, and otherwise unsuited. I'd hate a jock program like that. Not possible. Not me. But since I had been strong-armed into teaching, see, that shed another light on it. I felt that I didn't have enough information to keep teaching for much longer. Besides which, it was getting a little ridiculous that I was offering the students a class experience that I myself had never experienced! And although it seemed illogical, I did want to keep teaching. So I called Golden Bridge and asked about their teacher-training program. I remember exactly where I was when I made the call. My cat Solomon is diabetic, and he was undergoing a day of tests at the U vet hospital. I brought work along so I could stay with him. I also brought Gurmukh s book, which had the Golden Bridge phone number. I was bored, and I had my cell phone, a dangerous combination. I remember thinking, I bet I can't get reception from this waiting area and then before I could hesitate, a bright voice from Golden Bridge was on the line. I stuttered out a request for information, hoping that there had been a misprint and teacher training didn't actually exist. Oh, yes, we have teacher training starting this September! It runs one weekend a month. Huh. I had read about intensive programs where one could complete teacher training in two straight weeks, one trip. Once a month would never work for my schedule. I told the bright voice as much, saying that I was coming from out of town. Oh, not a problem! We ve had people come before from as far as New York. Say, why don t you stay with me if you come out? Damn. She shot down my two big reservations, distance and accommodations, in one breath! I let myself have a few moments of reluctance, but then I just decided that it was going to happen. To cover my nervousness about participating in the program, I focused on details: who would take my shifts at work, what luggage did I need, what should I read before it began. Then there was 9/11/2001. The terrorism has become history. It s impossible to sense again the raw fear it elicited, surging in the most unlikely environments. In the subsequent days, I taught
yoga students how to chant healing mantras for those in need. The first yoga class I taught after the bombings was right after--most of the students hadn't heard about it yet. I was in a position of a spokesperson for yogic compassion, without any clear sense of what to say. The teacher-training program was scheduled to begin the next weekend. More than ever, I knew it to be impossible for me to go. The airports were locked down, and it was unsure when they would reopen. It was the wrong time to travel. Trembling with anxiety one evening, I voiced this opinion to my boyfriend. I was hoping and expecting that he would say, Oh, sweetie, you don't have to go, it s too dangerous. I want you safe. Cancel teacher training. Stay home with me! I was very unhappy when he said instead, You realize that there s going to be more airport security than there s ever been. Your flight will be on schedule by Friday. You ll be totally fine. What's going on with you? You ve been wanting to do this for so long; why can t you at least go to the first weekend? So, alternating between crying and growling at him, I got myself to the airport and started my journey... and in the end, I m so thankful that he gave me that push, although I wasn t very gracious about it at the time. Both of the teacher-training programs I ve participated in, Kundalini Yoga teacher training and Kundalini pregnancy teacher training, have helped me to help other people. I expected that. I did not have an understanding, though, of how much they would help me. There are a number of before and afters in my life, the points at which things were one way and then became another. Some carry sadness or emotional aftershocks, such as before and after my parents divorced or the first time I saw someone die. Some are societal benchmarks, such as before and after graduating from college. Perhaps the greatest division, and the most positive, is before and after teacher training. I don t know if that's true for everyone who participates in the program, but in terms of feeling well, myself, and whole, that's my single greatest before and after. The teacher training/advanced study program brings you through so much inner healing and change. The subconscious mind is very good at coming up with resistance to that self-healing. It s as though the parts of you in need of healing that have begun the process of change suddenly say, No, wait, let s change back...i might be unhappy the way I am, but it's familiar! I truly believe that every teacher-training applicant goes through this process of resistance in one form or another. It s just part of the way we work on ourselves and grow in this discipline, much like the resistance of irritation or hopelessness that comes up to be conquered during a challenging Kundalini class. You go through it, and then you get better. You just do. Those of you who are Kundalini students, even a little bit, went through a little resistance to get yourself to class so that you could help yourself. You did it once already, so if it s time for you to participate in teacher training, you can get through the resistance again. It's the same thing, just on a grander scale. You can do it.
It reminds me of a quotation from Yogi Bhajan: Balance has to be achieved. In focusing on yourself, you must understand that there is pressure. The question is whether you choose pressure to go towards higher consciousness or down the tube. It's the same pressure. Regarding the teacher-training program presented by Soul House Yoga with the Center for Happiness in January 2010, pricing and other information can be found online at www.centerforhappiness.com under the training tab or at soulhouseyoga.com. Below are bios of the outstanding and renowned men and women who will be leading the program here in 2010. I am honored to have these stellar instructors in this program. I hope you can take the chance on yourself and join us. Sincerely yours, Helena Raghubir
The 2010 Teacher Training program at the Center for Happiness features a strong, experienced team of KRI-Licensed Kundalini Yoga Teacher Trainers from around the country including Lead Trainer, Nirvair Singh CEO of KRI, with Nirvair Kaur, Krishna Kaur, Guruchander Singh, DC, and Kirn Kaur. Their presence will lift your spirit and their caliber will bring out the best in you. NIRVAIR SINGH KHALSA began studying with Yogi Bhajan in 1971 and has taught over 13,000 Kundalini Yoga classes to date. He is a retired University Instructor at the University of Alaska Anchorage where he taught classes in Kundalini Yoga for 31 years. He has authored nineteen best selling DVDs/Videos and four books on Kundalini Yoga as taught by Yogi Bhajan. (http//www.kundaliniyoga.net). Nirvair has also taught classes, workshops and trainings throughout the Americas, Europe and Asia. Currently he is the CEO and President of The Kundalini Research Institute (KRI). He is a Yoga Alliance E-RYT 500 certified teacher trainer. He lives with his family in Anchorage Alaska and Espanola New Mexico and is the Co-founder and Co-director of the Kundalini Yoga Center of Alaska with his wife of thirty-six years, Nirvair Kaur Khalsa. (http://www.kundaliniyogacenter.com) NIRVAIR KAUR KHALSA is a lifelong student of Yogi Bhajan and Kundalini Yoga. She is a skillful and experienced teacher and enjoys sharing her enthusiasm and curiosity for spiritual development. She uses the transformational practice of Kundalini Yoga presenting it in her own unique and creative way. Nirvair Kaur is co-founder and director of the Kundalini Yoga Center of Alaska and has and taught locally and nationally for many years as well as internationally in the Americas, Europe and Asia. Having been sent by Yogi Bhajan to teach in Anchorage, Alaska in 1975 she and her husband, Nirvair Singh, still enjoy the beauty and majesty of Alaska in all seasons with their two beautiful children. In addition to teaching, other favorite activities include hiking, cross country skiing and meditating in the midnight sun. KRISHNA KAUR KHALSA, born and raised in Los Angeles, has been teaching the art and science of Kundalini Yoga since 1970. Prior to dedicating herself to practicing and teaching yoga, Krishna Kaur had a very successful career in the theater, co-starring in the original Broadway hit, Sweet Charity with Gwen Verdon, in Jean Genet s and The Blacks with Lou Gossett Jr. For the past eleven years, Krishna Kaur has been teaching yoga to urban and incarcerated youth. She founded Yoga for Youth and now trains yoga teachers how to more effectively expose urban teens to the ancient art and science of yoga. Krishna Kaur is President and founding member of the International Association of Black Yoga Teachers, which is dedicated to supporting black yoga teachers and making Yoga more available to Inner Cities communities through out the Diaspora. She is currently training students in Ghana where IABYT is a registered non-profit organization. GURUCHANDER SINGH KHALSA, D.C. has taught Kundalini Yoga since 1973. He taught Kundalini Yoga to Olympic athletes at SMU in Dallas, Texas from 1973-1976. He has written two books on Numerology as taught by Yogi Bhajan. Currently, he serves on the Board of Chiropractic Examiners in New Mexico and actively practices Chiropractic in Espanola and Santa Fe, New Mexico with his wife Kirn Kaur. They are co-directors of Yoga Santa Fe as well as the non-profit Real World Enlightenment Foundation, Inc. Dr. Guruchander is also currently the Chairman of the Board of Amar Infinity Foundation, Inc. which raises money to fund all of the Non-Profit Organizations which Yogi Bhajan founded. KIRN KAUR KHALSA, HHP, has taught Kundalini Yoga as taught by Yogi Bhajan since 1979. She is a holistic health practitioner utilizing Kundalini yoga, meditation and protocols from Western and Eastern health disciplines in her practice. She directed Khalsa Woman s Training Camp in New Mexico for five years and directed the Sikh Dharma Foreign Education program for six years under the direct supervision of Yogi Bhajan. She is a musician, plays harmonium, and was personally taught a lively and uplifting style of kirtan by Yogi Bhajan. She has two wonderful children and stays very busy as co-director of Yoga Santa Fe in Santa Fe, New Mexico.