Yoga and Teacher Training Kirsten: Is there anything you think is missing from the training of yoga teachers? Prashant: A lot is missing actually. We should not be training teachers. Teachers are not trained. This is what has happened because of pop yoga. See you have academies to teach violin playing, playing piano. Where is the academy to train piano teachers? Piano students are turned out, piano players are turned out, piano teachers are not turned out. Violin players are turned out, violin students are turned out, no where violin teachers are turned out. But you see unfortunately, yoga teachers are turned out. Pseudo spiritualism has brought this flaw. There is no need to turn out teachers actually. Good students can at some point in time become good teachers if they want to become teachers but don t try to formalise this process of giving certificates and saying Now you can teach. It is causing all problems, that is why ethical committees are required because they have qualified to teach on the basis of their passing the examinations. Richard: It borrows from the secular system of school teaching because when you have yoga being taught in the public domain people want to see qualifications to teach rather than qualifications to be a practitioner. Prashant: Yes, that s why in formal education there are lots of flaws. Although it is necessary for education to seek to have a formalised process of turning out teachers and BAs B.Eds etc. but then there are flaws. When it is an informal process there are [fewer] flaws. But because it is large scale and an educational movement in society we have to have these formalised processes, degree courses, B.Ed courses and then pass this exam and you will become a teacher. But that has created lots of problems. Richard: Industrial Prashant: Industry, it has become Industry but when it was a very informal process there were no flaws. Now there are so many teachers of mathematics and therefore we have lots of unripe teachers in mathematics. or any subject. But when it was informal, a mathematics teacher was a genuine, authentic teacher. Now today we have so many mathematics teachers who are not genuine authentic teachers, just because they are certified to become teachers. You see because now this is a very informal relationship we can work without ulterior motive but suppose it is formalised I will say I will be charging one pound per one minute formalised education has brought lots of flaws. Yoga now does not really need it Maybe it was necessary about 50 years ago that we had to popularise yoga so that we had to turn out many, many teachers on a mass scale, but now yoga is sufficiently popular and so on we don t have to go to the same way Guruji did in the 1950s and 1960s. Now there is a change, something changed. So we don t have to do now, we don t have to propagate yoga the way he had to propagate it. Richard: Constantly demonstrating, constantly teaching Prashant: Yes, drawing people to his foot, draw them to do this, that s why I told the other day, you know, he had a philosophy Yoga For One And All. In those days he wanted to propagate because no one was taking to yoga so he said it is meant for everyone so he said he did for For One And All because he wanted to make a vocation of it and he could not even make a living so he said Come. Everyone should do. When
he said that he got some wealthy students and that gave him economic activity but later he said he was not treating everyone who came to his doors. Now we can t do that, we shouldn t do that, we can t even do that because we are closing the admissions every now and then. Richard: And also you are attracting people who would not have come in the first wave Prashant: Yes. Richard: the people who feel they should be coming to yoga whether or not they have any aptitude or inclination or feeling for it Prashant: That s what I said. Now these days I don t teach you people at all. I teach the subject. If you are interested take it, go away, if you are not interested step out of my class go away on your own. I don t teach you people I teach the subject. If you are interested, learn the subject. This I could not have done had yoga not been popularised by Guruji so much. Then I would be doing the same thing, trying to draw you to my fold, think the way I think, do the way I do, see these are the advantages I would have said. Now I don t have to do that, I will teach the subject purely, so I say to my students I am not teaching you people I am teaching the subject. Like a river flows, you have to go and fetch water. If you want water, take water, otherwise the river flows on its own. So I just teach the subject. If you want, take it, as much as you want, take it, as much as you can, take it. Kirsten: But what should we do given that we are in a situation where we have a system of teacher training, certification, all of that Richard: It has its own momentum Prashant: Yes, you can go on doing that, that is still there in the system that you have to go on turning out teachers, you can run your centre, that you can do as a part of running the centre, but once the students are in the class you can slowly give the dose of the classical yog. It may not be mega dose of yoga so slowly they will see that they are not coming for their course, their junior certification course or whatever, their sciatica problem or any problem. They will be coming for their needs, you can cater them or you have a centre to teach Iyengar Yoga so start teaching Iyengar Yoga but then magna doses can be inducted to them, slowly, so they will slowly transform, slowly they will take up this as well, they will take magna dose of classical yoga. Don t try to give magna dose of classical yoga for them when they say I have got sciatica problem, I have got this problem, I want to become a teacher in two years, I am here for certification etc. OK you are here for certification these are the things you have to go about but also be inducted to this. Like sleep is necessary for everyone. Make them feel that yoga is also necessary for everyone, this unified consciousness, or core consciousness or transcendent consciousness, we all want that at some point in time. Kirsten: I think it has not to be too linear and packaged in modules, so that people have to engage in it and it s complex, it s like reading your books - you have to read a bit, digest it, read it again go back a bit, go forward. You can t just say I ve done that, now I ll do that, and now do that, now give me the certificate which is a bit how
Prashant: Then that will be magna dose, then that will be not digestible so classical yoga cannot be given in a big way just bits and pieces. Once in a while so let them develop relish for it and then they will be inclined to take it more and more on their own and then they will have their own way to suit. Richard: We have found that when people have qualified as Introductory teachers they want to come to further qualification. First of all they come in the same way as they approach Introductory, they want to know give me the information I need, right or wrong so I can pass this assessment or other but the way then to teach them is gradually to wean them away from that and then they have a different motivation for coming because they are learning something different and say the Junior Intermediate or the Senior Intermediate stuff is a way of introducing them to concepts you know they can understand or absorb because you can t teach all the levels the same. You know what the people in front of you will be able to understand and what they won t be able to understand. I think after years of teaching that becomes intuitive. You realise more right now is the time to start telling people this and sometimes they will say Why didn t you tell us this years ago but you can t tell them years ago because it would have undermined them but at a certain point their foundations are strong enough that they can take on something new that is different. sometimes I say all right I told you this at beginners level but now you have to learn something completely different, it is opposite now, this is a change of direction Prashant: Correct, correct Richard: but you can t tell people too early on, change direction now, because they haven t got the footing Kirsten: Yes. Prashant: And prepare them for disillusionment because the problem of worldly man is that he is not prepared for disillusionments, so spiritual knowledge is disillusionment Richard: Whereas everybody wants fulfilment don t they Prashant: Yes. Richard: If you buy something on the internet you may buy it from The Fulfilment Division you don t buy it from The Disillusionment Division Kirsten: That comes later after you buy the product (laughter) Prashant: So if this is the case they won t be able to take it, there will be disillusionment and they are shattered. Like the other day I was telling that you people had very formal education from Guruji, that s because he knew that you are going to become teachers, so he told you Sirsasana, take this measurement, etc. etc. how to place the head and how to place the elbow, how to keep the elbow. I said that he never did this to us because he did not teach us formally to become teachers. We learned by watching him. And secondly I said we learned by watching his conduct of life. You people watched him while he was teaching in your classroom, he was on the platform and you were watching him so he was always in a presentable mode or a presentation worthy mode. Like we
are in social face. See the moment before you entered here I was on my mat sleeping here, do you follow? I was in my very informal condition but now I have to become a little formal since I have called you across the table here. So we learned from Guruji while he was practising, while he was conducting his life and he was not projecting to be a teacher. But for all of you he was projecting to be a teacher and you were learning from him. So I said Look into light - you can t look into light straight away too long. Glaring. But then I can feel the light which is above the head. I can feel for a longer time, light does not create problems but if I want to look at it I can t look too long. So you people were looking into him and then most of you got dazzled, that s why you could not see him properly but we were all the time looking from the side we could see for 24 hours a day - what he does, when he gets up, how does he get up, when he goes to sleep, what does he do during the day. It was with all that we learned, he did not teach us formally - keep the crown of the head, measure the elbows, touch this, touch that. This is because raw teachers who are turned out he has to tell them, that this part of the forearm should touch, this should be the distance etc. In our case he never told all these things. I told Abhi, I said, In last ten years he wanted you to become teachers, that s why he taught you how to teach whereas this was not our case. He did not have to think that way, now he had to think about you that you should become a teacher. So he taught you, he did the spoon feeding for you Richard: Because it was suitable Prashant: Yes, in our case he was in a prime age so he did not have to bother about our upcoming as yoga teachers, because he had his own career, he had his own life in front of him so he was doing his things and we were learning from him and then he was teaching you in your case, so that s a big difference. He was teaching you and therefore you learned. we were learning from him when he was not teaching us, which was totally different, Kirsten: And presumably you were learning a lot before it even came on the horizon that you were a yoga teacher.. it was a student thing Prashant: Yes. I told Abhi that You could not see him while he was teaching because he was not teaching the last twenty years so she could not see how he teaches and therefore he had to teach her, how she should teach. In our case he did not teach us how to teach but we were learning from his teaching. He was teaching and we were looking at him. We were seeing from his way of teaching, his process of teaching, interactions with students, why he gets angry, why does he not get angry, how does he not get angry etc. so by observation we learned which was a different training for us whereas there is not an advantage for Rayas and Abhis. I said You are told, like instant food package, do like this and teach like this - trikonasana. In our case that was never the case so we had the time to have our own process to become teachers, now you have no opportunity to have that process, it s all instruct, Do this, like noodles, because we don t allow the things to go through that transformation. Kirsten: That longer process then enables you to find your way.. rather than turning out a package like everyone is the same Prashant: Yes. That s what I said to Abhi, The process teaches you a lot and now they were deprived of the process, it was compressed and they were given the ready made things, ready made instructions, Go this way, do that way, teach this way, go about this
way, for us it was not the case. For us the process gave us a lot of education and you were deprived of the process.