Swami Satchitananda & the Integral Yoga Retreats
Swami Satchianada & the Integral Yoga Institute
Retreats…. silence, vegetarian food, no looking at
other participants, keeping our gazes down, away
from other yogis, etc.
In New York City when I attended Sivananda style yoga classes at the upper West side branch of the Integral Yoga Institute my young son wanted to go with me, so he attended the yoga classes for kids while I was in the adult classes.
The Institute regularly hosted retreats in a serene wooded area of upstate New York . During these weekend retreats we ate only vegetarian food, kept silence during the entire retreat, kept our gaze internal, not making eye contact with other participants—the purpose of these behaviors being that of increasing & deepening our internal experience.
When I began attending the yoga classes at the Institute, I had years previously considered myself a strict atheist, forcefully rejecting any & all religions.
Yoga, to me, was NOT a religion, but simply an exercise class, a way to stretch and relax, etc.
I began attending the frequent lectures given by Swami Satchiananda, and after listening to various of his talks, I began to realize that maybe there could be an omnipotent or at least a universal or maybe a randomly occurring power or a scientific entity or substance or something that we creatures and elements are all a part of…that maybe that could be what I might call the “Universe” and others might call it “God.”
It was Swami Satchianada whose influence kinda helped me to regain some sort of feeling like that.
So as I kept on attending the yoga retreats, I began wondering what more there might be to life, to the universe, to existence……