Jitendra Das, traditional yoga teacher in Rishikesh

Jitendra Das is a teacher who has been on the yoga teaching scene in Rishikesh for quite a long time. I received a recommendation about his classes the first time I got to Rishikesh, in 2006 or 2007. I did not get to his class then as he required signup for the entire course, drop-ins were not allowed at that time at his school, Patanjali International Yoga Foundation.

He had the reputation of a strict teacher who can teach simple and advance yoga poses and who takes methodical approach towards practicing progressively more advanced poses. That was very intriguing, and a few years later I visited his classes during Rishikesh yoga festival.

That was indeed an interesting class, and it had an asana-centered approach. He would present one advanced asana and break it down into elements that are required to perform it, for example pelvic flexibility, shoulder strength, etc. And then he would show what asanas develop those necessary elements – pelvic strength or shoulder flexibility, so that a person could prepare better for a pose.

I wrote a review about Jitendra Das on his TopYogis page. There you can also read other reviews, check his pictures, school that he is teaching at, and contact him for any questions.

Last year we were in Rishikesh with the purpose of exploring and interviewing interesting teachers in Rishikesh, and we interviewed Dr. Jitendra as well. You can read his interview or watch the video of it here.

If you have practiced with this teacher, I would appreciate your comments about this experience here or directly on his page, so that other people could easily find it!

TopYogis – a site for search of yoga teachers, schools, retreats and teacher trainings around the world

Dear yoga seekers,
I started this site with the aim of sharing my experiences about yoga teachers I have come across while living in India. Some people have written me that my articles helped them make a more informed choice about yoga teachers that wanted to study with, but there were lots of people who asked me questions I could not answer.
Many people asked me for advice about certain teachers or schools, and I could not help them because I did not practice with those teachers. By the number of such requests, it was obvious that our informational space lacks a place where people could find a complete and accurate information about yoga schools and teachers in India, and recommendations and feedbacks from fellow practitioners on their experiences with retreats and teacher training courses.

That’s why I decided to create such place – a website that would include all major teachers and schools in India and over the world, along with their programs, events, and reviews of people who have already been there. It is TopYogis and we are only starting.

If you’re a yoga teacher or school, please go ahead and register on our website. If you’re a yoga practitioner, check the listings in Rishikesh and other cities, and if you find a teacher or school you have practiced with, leave your review on your experience. This will be a great help for all yoga students who are planning trips of their life, and don’t know what choice of yoga program to make!
If you would like to leave a review but don’t see your school or teacher there, please tell me and we’ll register that school on the website so that you could leave a review. You can contact us by pressing FEEDBACK button at the bottom of every page of yoga review website, or by leaving a comment here, or by contacting me on Facebook, https://www.facebook.com/anastasia.kurdina.5

TopYogis, a yoga review website for yoga teachers, instructors, and yoga travelers

Please, help yoga travelers find their yoga path!

Pankaj Sharma, an outstanding yoga teacher

I visited Pankaj’s course in December 2014. I did not write about him then because of the lack of time. But I feel the need to do it anyway because the notes and sequences that I made on that course turned out to be so helpful, that I just feel I must write about this teacher.

Pankaj Sharma is a teacher of asana alignment (mainly, though he teaches pranayama as well) with many years of practice and teaching experience. He started in Rishikesh with local Iyengar teacher Rudra Dev and other Iyengar teachers that contributed a lot to his understanding of mechanics of the human body. Pankaj was a well known teacher in Rishikesh, then some 10 years ago or so he moved to Germany to live there with his family and chose his own path of practice – not strictly Iyengar, but still drawing a lot from similar sources and approaches. He’s Ashish’s brother and comes to Rishikesh to give just one course per year, usually in December, which he conducts in the place where Ashish normally has his classes, in the Green Hotel. This is usually 3 weeks course including 2 classes per day. The course is designed for experienced students and focuses on making them be more aware of their bodies, and learn approaches and tricks to control it better.  Over the time of these three weeks Pankaj shows a path from simplest asanas towards the most challenging ones, developing awareness, motor control, strength, flexibility and endurance.

Usually Pankaj does not allow drop-in classes, you have to take the entire course. The reason for this is very simple: Pankaj designs the course in a way that each class relies on the practice done in the previous one. The first class contains only 3-4 asanas with a lot of explanations and practice of basics, the next lesson builds on those basics to introduce new asanas, refine the previous ones, engage various parts of the body like feet or shoulder-blades or calves. So each lesson expands your understanding of previous practice, deepens and adds more nuances, and by the end of the course you see the whole picture, you are really equipped to do your own practice and know how to work with your body.
One word of caution: this is not a course for beginners. You will be doing pretty intense stuff and you better skip this course and practice with other teachers if you’re only starting your path in yoga, otherwise intensity can hurt you.

If you are interested in yoga alignment, you need to check classes of Pankaj. There are several factors that made his classes very valuable and definitely worth visiting.

He gives really well structured course

Each class is connected to previous, building wholesome picture of human body machine. It’s like you’re looking at the body through magnifying glass, learning to control one muscle at the time, and lesson by lesson connect everything together.

Good expert

Pankaj reads bodies excellently. You have probably heard those notorious anecdotes how alignment teacher looks at the student struggling with hand stand and finds the reason of those difficulties not in weakness of arms or shoulders, but in the fact that the student does not properly press the second phalanx of his index finder, or does not extend the right heel enough, or something like that. Well, jokes aside, it works. Pankaj will look at your body and will be able to identify the reason of your difficulties in certain pose, and very often, this reason will lie far away from the parts of body you think you’re doing this pose with. For example, he can fix your back bends with correct engagement of your feet, or arms, etc. It’s really amusing process and the most amusing part of it, it works.

Right degree of strictness

Pankaj is a strict teacher, he has rules and demands the students to give their best, but he does that with such softness that you never feel stressed. And you always feel that his demands are fair and are there for your own good.

Passionate encouragement

Pankaj can shout, but not in the way that some Iyengar teachers do (maybe because he is not an Iyengar teacher after all). He shouts instructions because he’s so intensely in the moment and wants everyone to pay attention, that it actually gives you encouragement and that extra energy boost. I have never felt any tension, let alone irritation, from his classes. By the contrast, some other “shouting teachers” made me want to kill someone after their classes.

He’s a practitioner

Pankaj practices and can show all those crazy things on his body, which is really helpful because you can SEE what he wants you to do. He is also one of those few teachers in Rishikesh who practice before the class. It’s also great, because you can use that time to approach him with some questions.

Charisma and friendliness

Pankaj socializes with people, very often invites everyone to join him for dinner in Chotiwala or juice place, organizes some picnics and celebrations. You feel a genuine desire to connect with people, to know them more. And this gives a wonderful effect: the whole class becomes like a one unit, one community of friends and colleagues. He knows everybody by name and jokes about himself and students, which makes classes entertaining and more “intimate”. He is really charismatic and open-hearted person.

He’ s not afraid to get his hands dirty

Once Pankaj saw Green hotel’s cleaning lady wipe the hall floor with the same rug she used for toilet. So Pankaj “fired” her right away and cleans the practice hall himself instead. That’s a rare combination of attentiveness and lack of unnecessary pride.

He does not seem to be focused on money-making

When I heard that Pankaj is coming to Rishikesh to give just one course, I thought that the prices would reflect the scarcity of that offer, and would be higher than usual Rishikesh prices. But I was wrong. Each class of the course in December of 2014 cost 200 rupees – that was the one of the LOWEST price asked by teachers in Rishikesh. Long are gone the days when yoga classes in Rishikesh cost 1 or 2 dollars. Now yoga in Rishikesh costs pretty much the same as you would pay in your home country. $5 is good price, and some classes can cost $10 or $15. 200 rupees was a very modest price in 2014 that only few people in Rishikesh charged (including Pankaj’s brother Ashish). But when you think, a teacher that comes from Germany to give just one course per year, and he does not allow drop-in students in the middle of the course (most teachers allow drop ins as it means additional income for each class), then you start thinking that money is not among the primary motivations for such teacher. Maybe this year the prices have changed – I would appreciate comments from those who have visited the course of 2015.

A teacher who gives more

Pankaj has conducted several breathing classes during the course. One of them was based on hyperventilating technique. Pankaj was giving instructions for each inhalation and exhalation to pace the breathing properly. So he was literally shouting “INHALE!!!” – “EXHAAAALE!!!” for 2 hours, very fast and without stop. And as we were doing it, I could not help thinking, “he does not have to do it, putting so much effort, just to make us have that experience”. Being a yoga teacher myself I understand very well how much talking during class is “giving”. And when you have to shout so intensely for 2 hours without stop, that tells something about your motivation and care of people.

So I hope you see, there are a lot of reasons to come to Pankaj course next December. I will just add a personal note that in what concerns physical practice teacher, Pankaj is by far my ideal teacher – knowledgeable, bringing you to the limit but gently, not forcing; charismatic, fun, easy going yet keeping structured discipline, generous, compassionate, communicative.

December 2017. Rishikesh.

You can reach Pankaj and via his page on TopYogis
Or any other time Frankfurt. His personal site for studio in Germany

Kamal Bhatt, a Yogi of Rishikesh

We come to Rishikesh to learn the secrets of yoga, looking for perfect teachers who would be all knowledgeable, powerful, personification of enlightenment, mind control and superhuman power. When we understand that such type of yogis are not to be found here on every corner (or in every cave), we start to settle for something more realistic – a teacher who would be experienced and knowledgeable to teach us proper techniques of asana, pranayama, cleanses and meditation. There are several good teachers here who can offer such expertise. So we learn here and devote some (sometimes considerable) part of our life to learning and mastering these yogic techniques. We study right asanas, proper alignment, good injury avoidance techniques. We go deeper in our forward and backward bends, do some crazy twists, impressive arm balances. Maybe we learn some pranayama techniques and cleanses that help us keep our body purer. Maybe we learn some mantras and kirtans as well.

And this is all very good, but what is the purpose of it? Is the final goal of our “practice” to become more flexible or stronger or able to hold the breath longer, or being able to twist ourselves into some pretzel poses? Is this the end of it? Of course, you will say, better health. Agreed. You will also say, more patience. Fine. Better mind control. Certainly. But for me, the goal of yoga is not just that. Neither it is in becoming “enlightened”. Being used so much in all kinds of fairy-tale-ish legends about superhumans that nobody has ever seen, this lofty word does not bear any substantiality any more… For me, the path of yoga should lead to becoming a better person, and it should be seen in one’s attitude towards oneself and certainly, towards other beings. For a good practitioner and especially a teacher of hatha yoga, the yamas, moral conduct rules, ought to be something natural, engraved in someone’s nature. It’s natural that yogi should not feel violence towards others, that he is truthful, does not indulge in feelings of envy, jealousy, greed or lust. Yamas should not be a code that someone “adheres to”, this should become one’s nature. Goodwill to all people and the world around you, compassion, forgiveness, readiness to help when this help is needed, contentment and gratitude for what you have.

And can you imagine, in the world capital of yoga, there are a lot of good teachers that can teach you technicalities of asanas, pranayamas or kriyas, kirtans or meditations, but there are very few teachers who are just good persons by themselves. This may seem sometimes even discouraging. Too many teachers are working here not because of call of the heart and a longing for self-development, but merely because yoga is a good business in Rishikesh. But what we as “seekers” from the West really seek is a role model, someone who practices all these yoga practices and by his or her life and actions towards others shows that these practices help him or her in becoming better human being. There are really few teachers like that in Rishikesh, and Kamal Bhatt is one of them.

Kamal is a toga teacher who has been giving classes for about 10 years. His main speciality is shatkarmas, yogic cleansing techniques, natural lifestyle, and classic yogic asanas. When I was running a yoga school in Rishikesh, Kamal was our teacher and also helped us deal with everyday situations in the school. Not everybody in our school liked his style of teaching, the fact that he does not explain a lot of things or cannot provide you with lengthy intellectual explanations of why you do this or that practice and what physiological benefits it brings. He talks in simple language and explains effects from his experience. Because first of all Kamal is practitioner. One who really practices all these yogic techniques, and given the limitations of his knowledge of English language and maybe some rhetoric skills, speaks very briefly. But he definitely practices yoga and knows the benefits it can bring. He helped several severely overweight student with health problems to lose a lot of weight and become completely medicine-free in a few months. One girl lost about 25 kg under his guidance and corrected her hormonal balance to the point that she conceived a child right after the course in Rishikesh, something she and her husband fruitlessly tried to do for years. Kamal used combination of fasts, specific diets, serious yogic cleanses and asana/pranayama routine, which might seem to some boring, but turned out to be very effective.

Kamal Bhatt

But the most amazing thing about Kamal is his personal qualities. While working in our school, he was the most reliable person. I could ask him to substitute some teachers 30 minutes before the class, and he would always be there without failure. I could call him in the middle of the night saying somebody got sick and needs to be taken to the hospital and he would be right at the person’s door in twenty minutes, ready to drive them to any hospital in the vicinity of 50 kms. He never asked about the money, never said no to any request. He was a teacher with the smallest ego and biggest modesty, out of all we worked with.

One interesting instance happened a few months ago. I has not been involved with the school for 1,5 years and came to Rishikesh solely for personal practice. One day I received a phone call from my friend who has just received a head injury and called me, all in tears, to find out, where is the nearest hospital. I was some 40 minutes away from her. I had no scooter or bike. I was trying to think where the nearest hospital would be, so that she could get there as quickly as possible before passing out on the way. Who can help me? Out of all people I know in Rishikesh, I called Kamal. And certainly, he dropped everything he was doing and came to give the girl a ride to a hospital in Rishikesh. He registered her at the hospital, waited with her in the line, translated to the doctor her complaints and comments, paid her bills, rode her back home and without saying a word, proceeded on his business. Keep in mind, he does not know the girl. When I met him a few days later to give him some sweets and compensation for the costs that he spent on her, Kamal was really surprised. I said that he should take the money because he paid for her in the hospital. He replied, “It’s everyone’s duty to do that in such circumstances”.

If more people thought like that, the world would be a better place.

So maybe if you’re in Rishikesh, you can drop in his class. Maybe he will not become your guru or the best teacher of all times, but it will be useful for you to see a practicing yogi and feel his light energy.

Read more reviews on Kamal Bhatt and find our where currently he conducts his classes at his yoga teacher page at TopYogis. 

Ashish Sharma, Excellent Asana Teacher in Rishikesh

Ashish Sharma, yoga teacher in Rishikesh

Dear Yogis and Travellers! Today I will tell you about one of my favorite teachers in Rishikesh, Ashish Sharma. It’s a teacher with unique expertise, one of the best specialists in Rishikesh in the field of asana alignment and development of programs that address body’s structural misbalances.

Of course, when we’re talking about asana alignment, the teacher number one in Rishikesh in this field would be Usha Devi (to my view at least), of whom I have already written in this blog. But yet, Usha, being a wonderful master, is not a teacher for everyone. I would say she is an excellent teacher for experienced yoga practitioners or for beginners who are ready to go way beyond their comfort zone to learn correct work with the body. She teaches in strict Iyengar style and is famous around the world as a teacher who can push you beyond your limit to make you develop really fast within limited timeframe.

But if you are a beginner or a practitioner who does not want to combine yoga with stress, who would like to receive deep knowledge on how to correctly work with the body and how to activate our deepest muscles and fascia, and yet do it with comfort, with good intensity and without unnecessary extremes, Ashish is your best choice. He’s not Iyengar teacher, but he teaches a lot of information about structural integration that is invaluable to both practitioners and especially yoga teachers. Moreover, he will teach you some points that no other teacher, even Iyengars, talks about – at least the ones I know of.

Ashish has a very good skill of body reading and can easily define what muscles or body parts of particular student need to be engaged to achieve optimal opening or stability in this or that asana. I was struggling with a few poses for several years, not understanding, why my body collapses in Scorpio and what I should do to progress in it. He was the only teacher out there to define my specific weakness and give me tools to work with it. He did it with a lot of my asanas and that actually helped me to deepen my practice a lot.

Of course, once you learn that skill of engaging and exercising deepest body muscles, it will go beyond performing asanas in yoga hall and translates into your entire life, influencing your everyday posture and potentially removing some old pains or problems.

He is one of the few teachers in entire Rishikesh who can safely work with students with disabilities and injuries, such as slipped disks, hernias, scoliosis, pregnancy, knee problems, etc. You need to talk to him before the class and he will pay special attention to you during entire session, suggesting you personalized asanas, props and exercises.

Ashish is a kind of teacher who just in a week or two can lead you from very superficial, rough understanding of your body to its deep knowledge, to direct interaction with it, to precise control of deep small muscles that support your joints and even to your ability to engage skin. This will help you feel your body in a completely new way, to see it open, become strong but soft, relaxed and developed in a balanced, healthy manner. I don’t promise that within a week or a month that you’re in Rishikesh you will learn all intricacies, but you will surely get real instruments to develop your body and get it ready for further stages of yoga. And you will certainly become stronger, healthier, more flexible, open, more stable both physically and mentally, as you will learn to hold positions for a long time and train your attention to go deep inside your body and to get fixed in particular areas.

And Ashish will do all this work to you in a soft manner, without violence and shouting, with a degree of strictness, but this strictness is very friendly and even compassionate I would say.

Giving a class in Crimea, Ukraine

By reading all this you would think that I’m advertising him. I’m not working in Himalayan Yoga Academy, where he teaches, anymore, so I have no interest to advertise him, I just like him a lot. And he’s really very good.

For the balance, I need to mention some drawbacks. His one is that he often comes late to his classes, so you will need to wait some 5-15 minutes.

He teaches drop in classes in Green View Hotel yoga hall in Ram Jhula. It’s located behind Parmarth Niketan. When you walk through Parmarth Niketan garden, turn right and walk a few minutes until the next crossroad before the building of Green Hotel, then turn left and on your right you will see a stairs leading to a yoga hall. Class timings change between 9 am to 9:30 in the morning and 5 pm to 5:30 in the evening. The duration of class is usually 2 hours, sometimes even more if he’s in a mood 🙂 The cost is 200 rupees.

Ashish also often teaches courses and intensives at Himalayan Yoga Academy. But not all courses, so you better ask them at http://yogaacademy.in

You can contact Ashish or read more reviews about him on his page at TopYogis

Vinay Chaitnya, teacher of hatha yoga and tantra meditations

I heard about this teacher 3 years ago when one good friend of mine visited Free International Yoga Festival in Rishikesh. He said that this teacher was one of the most interesting ones on the Festival, and that he gave my friend some good advises on deepening his personal yoga practice. Back then, I was visiting other teacher and did not care about expanding my horizons that much.

In November 2011, I was in Rishikesh and was set to visit all the teachers who were invited on the Festival, just to get acquainted with most famed yoga masters in the region. By the way, if you still don’t know, this Yoga Festival takes place on November 1-15 each year in Yoga and Music Culture Center near Ram Jhula, and it’s completely free. This is a great opportunity to find out about good yoga and Ayurveda teachers in Rishikesh and Haridwar. Yoga classes start at 7 AM and continue non stop until about 7 PM, everyday. After that, you have a great music concert with different Indian classic musicians and dancers.

So, last year, there were many great teachers in the schedule, many of them offered practical yoga classes, some of them gave lectures. There were a few teachers that I singled out from the list, and Vinay Chaitnya was among them, along with Yogi Vishvaketu and Surinder. Why? It’s hard to explain with one word, because there was nothing extraordinary in his choice of asanas, sometimes we did only 5-6 during entire class. And the alignment of those asanas were not as detailed or professional as some other teachers would give you. But the way you did these asanas was very different from other classes, and this was greatly impacted by attitude that Vinay tried to teach us.

In the beginning of each class he gave a brief lecture, where he explained the meaning of yoga and purpose of doing all these exercises. The purpose of all physical exercises, along with pranayama and meditation practices, is to be established in oneself, which means not to be driven by one’s thoughts, desires, instincts, inclinations, fears, etc., – just being in the moment, at least for a minute or two. The idea is certainly not new to yoga, but it’s just wonderful, how effective was his setting the understanding of the practice, and then guiding you through the practice so that the purpose is not just declared but achieved. I will not retell you the contents of all lessons, the idea is, he’s very good teacher, and with him, you will learn not only physical aspect of yoga or certain asanas/practices/exercises, but holistic understanding of the entire path, how to work with your mind through usual sequences of asanas. Apart from hatha yoga, he also teaches tantric meditations and practices.

I traditionally write about drawbacks or people that might find particular teacher’s classes not suitable. For Vinay that would include people who are very physically advanced and would seek many advanced poses, high intensity and big variety of practices. Yes, he likes to give traditional Pavana Muktasana series and traditional Surya Namaskara a lot (which would be good for beginners though!). Also, people who came to Rishikesh for some in-depth alignment may find more appropriate teachers. Those however that came for special meditations and traditional yoga experience may like his classes.

All that said, I can imagine that not all students would find Vinay’s personality suitable for them. My first impression was that he’s a bit proud and reserved, but once you get to know him closer he tends to open up and soften. So it certainly requires student-teacher match, and you need to try if it suits you. He has a school called Jeev Moksha, you can google him for contacts.

Trika (Agama) Yoga in Rishikesh

I heard about Trika yoga classes in Rishikesh 4 years ago, but did not want to go there based on the description of classes from different people. Though many were excited and satisfied with the classes, I thought the style of the class was not for me. Now when a friend suggested we go to the class and I felt more open to various styles of yoga,  I decided to give it a go.
Trika yoga is a different name for Agama yoga which is present around the world and is based mostly in Thailand. This is a style of yoga that focuses on tantric practices and incorporates elements of kundalini and laya yoga. The accent is not as much on performing asanas for physical strength and stamina as on opening energy centers and listening to the flow of energy in very simple postures.
Now, all my previous posts were about the yoga teachers that I definitely recommend everyone to visit. This one is not. I just decided to try this class to give my personal feedback on it, be it positive or negative. As still after the class, it was difficult to come up with one definite conclusion, I will just list  negative and positive aspects of the class that I have experienced, and leave it for you to decide whether you want to try it.
Drawbacks:

• the yoga hall in Swargashram is scary and badly maintained, it initially creates some cautious atmosphere.
• poor ventilation in the yoga hall. After 10-15 minutes in the class I felt strong heartbeat and had to go out to get water. Immediately after I went out, I got better. In the entire hall, there were only one or two open windows which was not enough for the number of people and the size of the hall.
• the class did not contain  enough physical exercise, which is not very conductive to developing or pushing to the limit your physical body.
• absent explanations on safety of performing asanas. At the same time, the selection of the asanas was not really safe – without sufficient explanation on how to perform the asanas on physical level, some asanas may be conductive to injury. For instance, we had cobra with full arms extension that was kept for over 5 minutes. My friend that also came to this class, experienced pain in lumbar for a couple of days after the class.
• the other factor that contributed to poor explanation is that  the girl was speaking in low voice, it was hard to hear her while standing in the third row, some instructions we just missed, others guessed at random.
• even as we tried to follow the instructions, in overall the class seemed a little boring. Of course that may be due to our lack of patience that needs to be developed, but the impression was common among three of us that visited the class.

Strengths:

• the class can be suitable for beginners as it does not contain many asanas or advanced practices, provided that precautions are taken for cobra and similar potentially problematic postures.
• despite poorly audible directions, when the teacher noticed that someone did not follow her instructions, she always came up to clarify them personally.
• I really felt the pulsation of a definite body part in each asana, and entire body pulsation in savasana and meditation. However, this cannot be entirely credited to the class itself as feeling subtle sensations in the body has become quite easy and even habitual for me. Still, I did feel the desired, quite strong effect after the class and can believe that other people who take Trika yoga courses feel such effect too.

This is my personal impression, and it also depends on the teacher. Moreover, I suspect we got to some first class of they course, and they teach one asana per each lesson, so by the end of the course you are supposed to do a lot of asanas in one class. If you tried this style of yoga and have your own opinion, you’re most welcome to leave it here.
Timing and Place: In case you want to check it out, the yoga hall of Trika yoga is situated near main office of Swargashram, Ramjhula, Rishikesh. The evening class is 4PM, but there are some other classes and lectures, timing to which you can find out on your own. Anyay, Rishikesh is full of their colorful advertisements so you will surely not miss it.

Yogi Vishvaketu, Akhanda & Kundalini Yoga Teacher in Rishikesh

Yogi Vishvaketu is a well known master of yoga in Rishikesh that teaches in his Asharm in Tapovan, high bank of Rishikesh. Besides Rishikesh, he is particularly known in Canada, where he spends half of the year teaching in Canadian yoga centers, taking part in yoga festivals, and living with his wife and children.

Yoga style

Yogi Vishvaketu has registered his own style of yoga which he calls Akhand yoga, “akhand” meaning “whole” in sanskrit. According to Vishvaketu, this style is a holistic approach to teaching yoga which includes not only asanas, but pranayamas, mantra chanting, and meditations. The only thing you will not get in his drop-in class is perhaps shatkarmas (yogic cleansing) except for kapalabhati of course. I’m almost sure that yoga teaching courses cover this component as well.

From my own experience, his akhanda yoga class is a good, considerably intensive hatha yoga class with 10-20 minutes of mantra chanting at the beginning and end of the class, and excessive breathing exercises, done mainly in beginning, but also throughout the class. The breathing exercises are not limited with classic breathing techniques like kapalabhati, bhastrica, udjaya pranayama, but include also some new combinations of breathing which he calls “chair breathing”, “happy breathing”, “shoulder breathing”, “disco breathing”, etc. I suspect that some of these breathing techniques were invented by Vishvaketu, while some are borrowed from less known traditions of Himalayan yoga. For instance, I saw some of similar breathing exercises at sukshma viyama class. Most of the breathing techniques are fast and intensive and intended to “wake the body up”, so if you have any physical or psychic condition that is not well-matched with intensive breathing, you better exercise caution.

His asana sequences are quite intensive, with particular attention on strengthening the body. Vishvaketu likes chair pose, especially placing it in already maddeningly exhausting sequences right after Warrior III or other standing balances of the like. One very interesting feature that he does is giving themes to all of his classes. The theme touches upon both mental attitude (what is the focus of mental work in the class), and physical focus. This helps to direct attention to certain sensations and processes within the body and mind, and provides some diversity to each class. So as you see he’s quite creative guy, not afraid to experiment with breathing, asanas, lesson sequences. So be prepared, as his class may get you infected with such creative atmosphere and you may start to experiment with your own approach to yoga. That’s, to my mind, is a great benefit and a thing to learn from him.

Besides Akhand yoga, Vishvaketu occasionally gives kundalini  yoga classes, that are more dynamic that his ordinary classes and directed not so much at developing physical strength and stamina, as at  awakening chakras with fast movements and breathing techniques. All this awakening requires enormous amount of repetitive movements that can try your patience and stamina.

Who is Yogi Vishvaketu

And of course nothing adds better to the benefits of the class like personality of yogi Vishvaketu. He has great sense of humor and can uncharge your body tension by very appropriate jokes. He has quite gentle voice and approach, but very confident adjustments. He also gives mindful and sufficient instructions on asana alignment and breathing techniques. So as you may guess, the atmosphere in his class is very light and easygoing, beneficial both for physical workout and self-insight and meditation.
With all that taken into account, but still considering large amount of students and “high status” of this yogi, I perceived him as somewhat distant. What melted my heart towards Vishvaji is this. During mealtimes, various people living in ashram help people from the kitchen to serve food and drinks to everybody in canteen. So, as I witnessed Vishvaji serving food and tea to his own students, this changed my attitude completely. As far as I can tell from my perspective, he’s living what he’s teaching, and that’s the best you can expect from a yoga teacher.

Class schedule, yoga teacher training courses.

In overall, you surely won’t waste your time if you pop into his morning class which starts at 6 AM in his ashram’s yoga hall. Besides drop in classes, Vishvaketu offers yoga teacher training courses certified by Yoga Alliance, that cost about $2500-3000 per course. The fee, besides yoga course, includes living in his ashram and 3 daily sattvic meals. This might seem a little bit expensive compared with overall fees throughout Rishikesh, and yet he has many students for each course who value his quality yoga classes and want to teach his style, akhand yoga.  The training courses are also conducted by people from Canada and besides yoga classes and lectures, trainees are offered many opportunities for entertainment or diving into Indian culture. This includes excursions to nearby trekking places, friendly visits to other ashrams, music concerts, live music playing during the yoga classes, lectures from famous people, guest appearances of local yogis and babas, group visits of local restaurants, etc. To most of these events, visitors are also invited.

Ashram Living in Rishikesh

Besides all this, you may also like the very experience of living in Vishvaketu’s ashram. You may do so without signing up to his training course. The ashram was built by Vishvaketu and his wife some 6-7 years ago, and it’s a very light and comfortable place. It’s situated in Tapovan, in the middle of a beautiful valley, surrounded by quite high mountains. You will get the experience of living in ashram environment without actually having to live in a cave or something resembling a cave. Rooms in the ashram are light, the meals are very good, everyday you can participate in fire puja and kirtan, and of course practice in his beautiful and spacious yoga hall at the rooftop, which I consider one of the best yoga halls in Rishikesh. The time of practice, 6 AM, may seem scary to someone at first, but after you come to the class for a few times, you will feel that it’s the perfect time for a yoga class. During the class, you will witness beautiful transition from the blackness of the night to very gentle sunrise which starts somewhere behind huge mountains right before your eyes. It’s a great feeling and I guarantee that after some time you will find 8-9 AM yoga classes too late and  not conductive “to spirit of yoga”.

What else to say? Yes, after you have visited Vishvaji’s lessons, you may be sure you’ll stay connected with him. Vishvaketu is quite active in Facebook, I don’t know where he finds time for this activity with his schedule and amount of friends in his account, but he replies to all the posts and comments and does follows his friends closely. So here’s another address of good yoga teacher in Rishikesh not to miss:

Anand Prakash Ashram, Tapovan, Laxman Jhula, Rishikesh. If you know where Ayurveda cafe is, the Anand Prakash building is right beside it. If you don’t know how to get there and go from Laxman Jhula, after the bridge, turn to right and ascend the stairs near German Bakery, take right turn again and follow the narrow road first above Ganga, then between locals’ houses. When you see a small temple on the left side, turn right to the small street that goes up. From here, after 3 minutes walk, when you see that the main road goes up and ahead and there’s a side turn to the right (opposite to the small shop on your left), turn right again. You can also notice the ad signs and ask people around 🙂
Time of classes: 6 AM daily from September-October to December, and from February to March-April. For exact dates and schedule of teacher training courses, visit his website, http://www.akhandayoga.com/

You can read more reviews on Yogi Vishvkety and see exact location of his ashram at his yoga teacher page at TopYogis

Best Iyengar Yoga Teacher in Rishikesh: Usha Devi

Now I’m going to tell you about notorious Iyengar yoga teacher in Rishikesh, Usha Devi. I was taking her class for a few weeks 2 years ago, and I got back for a few more weeks this year. Once again I concluded that nothing works on the body level as deep and as profound as Iyengar yoga. Before Usha, I was visiting classes of other hatha yoga teachers, all of them are very good masters, but once you go to Iyengar class, you know for sure that your body starts to work in much more profound way, and you engage not only big and superficial muscles, but deep, small, medium – all muscles that you can engage as much as your nervous system allows you to.

The effect also largely depends on who exactly teaches you principles of Iyengar yoga, as some Iyengar classes from other teachers here in Rishikesh may be quite boring, self repetitive, and not conductive to total involvement of student’s attention into the process of body alignment. Usha is the best teacher to get you working on the brink of your abilities, not only due to precise and detailed instructions, but also by really demanding maximum efforts from everybody in the class. This is done quite in a military style, and you will often hear words like “Hey, what are you doing?”, “Are you sleeping?!”, “Hey, what is this, I said open your fingers!”, etc. You may also get occasional slap on the buttocks or on the back if you aren’t following her instructions. For some very sensitive people, such military style of class may seem too much and not conductive to the spirit of yoga, where you should relax and let go of all the tension. But it surely serves the purpose of perfect body alignment and concentrating on mental attention on the body, on particular parts of the body that you’re currently working on.

Why do we need perfect alignment? It’s not as much to make you look perfect in the asana, as sometimes you may use straps, blocks and other props that do not look actually beautiful and appealing. Perfect alignment, as I see it from my experience, serves several purposes:

1. Safety during yoga class. By following instructions of Iyengar yoga teacher, which are very precise and quite “medical”, as Usha describes them herself, you can enhance physical possibilities of your body in a safe way, being sure that you will not dislocate your knees, compress your spine, or tear some ligaments.
2. Enhanced control of your body, and awareness of body processes. Iyengar yoga students who learn to control movements of smaller muscles and direction of skin, immensely enhance control of their body, which can be used afterwards in any style of yoga or physical activity at all.
3. Improvement of health. This point logically follows previous two. Iyengar yoga is able to work profoundly on some problematic areas of the body, and alleviate physical problems. Usha herself is a great example of this. She got into serious car accidents two times during her life, that impacted her health significantly. Her pelvis and the bones of her legs were crashed, and the doctors told there was no way of her being able to walk again. Unbelievably as it may sound, with the guidance and strict help of her guru, B K S Iyengar, he got on her feet back again and now teaches Iyengar yoga, inspiring hundreds of people who visit her classes every year. In her class, I saw several people of age definitely over 60 who were as light and flexible as Russian ballerinas. One of such women told me that just a few years ago she was crooked and experienced difficulties in moving.
4. Attainment of dharana though concentration on the body. During Usha’s class, you will have no opportunity to think of anything else besides following her instructions, which lie in watching and controlling your muscles, skin, and breathing. All the process is rooted in the body, and with good Iyengar teacher, your attention will be in your body during entire class. And as yogis say, wherever is your attention, that’s the place your energy goes.

There are few other teachers in Rishikesh that teach Iyengar yoga, but they are not as brilliant because they are not able to bring students’ attention to their body as well as Usha does, and cannot attain similar intensity of the class. For some people, however, because of same reasons, these other teachers may be a good option. As thought the benefits are numerous, increased intensity of the Usha’s class leads to increased nervous strain, which may lead to some nervous tension or even breakdowns for unprepared students. Of course, with time both body and psyche adapts to the level of intensity of the class, and there are many devoted students of Usha who feel great and attend her classes every day. Other people however, need some rests from these classes. In any case, it’s very beneficial to have additional meditation sessions, as shavasana in Iyengar’s class is very brief and may not be enough to relieve all nervous tension.

This, however, is not the reason to skip the class. If you’re serious yoga practitioner, or moreover, if you’re yoga teacher, you must learn Iyengar method of body alignment to make sure you understand your own or your student’s body and don’t harm yourself or your students. Afterwards, you can teach any style of yoga, but you will be greatly enriched with understanding of safety principles and mechanisms of intensifying body work.

With all that said, it’s not that easy to get to Usha’s class as her intensives are booked several months ahead, and her classes are always full. You should sign up for the next week class on Saturday, at 7 :30 PM, if you have place after all the students participating in previous week’s classes have signed up.

Time of classes: 6-7:30 PM from Monday till Saturday, every morning from 7:30 to 11 AM is a self-practice in the same hall.

Place of Class: Omkaragaganda Ganga Sadan Patanjala Yoga Kendra, next to Taxi stand near Ramjhula, Rishikesh. If you go from Rishikesh, you don’t need to cross the bridge, the center is on the same side of the bridge where Rishikesh city is.

You can read other people’s reviews on Usha Devi on yoga review and recommendation site, TopYogis. 

Good popular yoga teachers: Surinder Singh

So Surinder Singh is the first name I mentioned in my blog, thus I will tell more about him here. He’s one of very good teachers in Rishikesh teaching Hatha yoga with elements of Iyengar style and traditional yogic warmups (Sukshma Viyama). He does not give any advertisements anywhere, he’s not mentioned in any guides, he does not spam the walls of the city with his posters, and still he’s the teacher that has so many students, that some of them don’t fit into the class hall. He gets new students solely by referral. It’s a nice idea to ask people around in a local cafe on what they can recommend about yoga. It also depends on the area you’re asking in, but if you ask about yoga teachers in Ram Jhula, most likely you will be referred to Surinder.

What is so good about him? Well, in the first place, he’s a very special Indian yoga teacher that does not try to bend you into final position against your pain and limitations (as most Indian teachers tend to do), he sees the limits of every person and tries to expand what you’re doing into doing it more effectively. So he adjusts you very gently, barely touching you with a finger, and you suddenly feel the area that can be enhanced and that you need to work on. Or he can not touch you at all, just tell you to roll the tailbone or press your sitting bones, etc., and you can see that your posture is significantly improved, not only in regards of physical alignment, but concerning work with energy and attention. This is a very good type of adjustment, as you don’t depend every time on teacher that just puts your hands/shoulders/whatever in some position and you don’t realize what is going on. With Surinder, you can understand inner effect of the posture and apply his recommendations every time you work on your own or with other teacher. So this is a very extraordinary quality that you definitely have to check out.

Another quality of this teacher is that he’s not entirely about physical postures in his class, neither he tells you too many stories from Indian philosophy or some irrelevant things. He’s somewhere in the middle, connecting your physical practice not only to mental work, but spiritual awareness as well, if you allow me such a word. He may be able to connect certain position of your body in asana to your ego, or awareness of your breath to the attitude of letting go. Headstand is an opportunity not only to gain physical benefits of inverted posture, but see things in new light, upward down, which is extrapolated to your attitude to see things in different light in everyday situations. So these little things make his classes not only physically beneficial, but expiring and charging you with positive attitude.

Of course I should mention things that some people may not like. With Surinder these are very few. First, people who are used to very dynamic styles like Ashtanga Vinyasa my find his class too slow, and the postures too static. Even Sun salutations are done in a very static manner, with at least few breaths for each stage of salutation. But very often, this is very positive side. People who are used to dynamic styles suddenly find themselves shaking or sweating extensively on Surinder’s class, because they just lack static strength. Yoga is about balance of all dualities, and every practitioner should find beneficial the opportunity to balance their static and dynamic strength and stamina. So for many lovers of Ashtanga Vinyasa, Surinder’s class can improve their performance, and what’s even more important, create better alignment of each posture, so that they can practice in dynamic regime more consciously and effectively.

Second thing that some may not like concerns mainly hard core Iyengar fans that are not happy that Surinder does not give such detailed instructions as they expect. Well, not every Hatha yoga teacher should explain one asana for twenty minutes – the way it’s usual in Iyengar class, and still Surinder is one of the best explaining teachers. Compared to other folks around here, he talks a lot, not only about muscles and bones, but about energetic effects of each asanas as well. What’s more interesting, he does not give uniform instruction to anyone and he adjusts the instructions every time according to the personal situation of the practitioner. For instance in dandasana, some bend too much and they should work on rolling the tailbone in to make their spine straight, while others are stiff in the lower back and they should roll their thighs in and try to bring the lumbar region forward. So you see, two opposing directions for 2 different people. It all depends on the person, and if you’re lucky to get in non-busy class, you can get some good advice from him. So for anyone except hard core Iyengar fans, the information that Surinder gives will seem more than enough. Moreover, I believe that Surinder’s approach is much better for beginners, because too detailed instructions of Iyengar style can confuse, discourage them and make them miss the big picture of each asana and yoga practice in general.

UPDATE

Places for class:

Surinder has built his own centre that is located between Ram Jhula and Laxman Jhula,in a willage behind Moondance cafe and Gita ashram. When you’re in the village, you will see his guesthouse as it’s the highest intensively green building.

You can get to the village in several ways: from Laxman Jhula, when you take the road that jeeps go on to get to Ram Jhula, somewhere in between Laxman Jhula area and Ram Jhula area, there will be one turn to the left that will lead to the hospital (you can ask around). Walk past hospital gate forward and take the first turn to the right. Walk straight and soon you will see a high green building on your left. Find a way to it in the maze of village streets 🙂

Other way is to take the road from Ram Jhula taxi stand near Gita ashram and Moondance cafe, the road leads to local temple and backside of Parmarth Niketan and is otherwise called “elephant road” (because one can literally meet elephants there in a winter time). Take a second turn left, you will see advertisement of Rajdeep palace there, but you don’t need to go to Rajdeep, turn right when you face the wall. Then you will have to take second or third turn left (just find a good looking street that does not look like a drive to one particular guesthouse) and as you walk the street, you will see the green building, that’s your destination.

The timing can change between 8 – 9 AM in the morning depending on the season. For the afternoon, currently, timing is 4:30, but can change with the season as well. The duration of the classes is about 2 hours.

Cost: 200 rupees/class

Now additionally to drop-ins, Surinder conducts teacher training courses. Visit his website, http://swastiyogashala.com/ for dates and more info

You can read more reviews on Surinder, get his contact information and check the exact location of his school at Surinder Singh’s TopYogis page.