How I got into yoga - Prabhat's yoga Journey

EARLY AGE

I was born in a middle class Hindu family in Delhi, India. My mother hails from a farming village in Uttar Pradesh and my father is a doctor (Ayurveda, Homeopathy) in Delhi and a bit of a mystic. From my early memories I remember our family was a lot in ritualistic worship of Hindu gods and mantra chanting. I also remember that the relationship with the divine was a very materialistic one and even at that age I felt that something was missing in this picture and by the time I was in my early teens – I had totally disconnected from Hinduism/religion. All I saw was people doing rituals with very materialistic demands from their gods. Dear God please help me find a husband/job/child/money was the theme of all religious worships and so called spiritual practices. In my heart I knew something was missing in this brand of material worship.

When I was in my early teens my mother turned to yoga and that shaped my early thoughts about yoga. I came to believe that yoga is for elderly people who are doing this for health issues and social gathering. In spite of numerous requests and encouragements from my mother – I never tried yoga. I was very clear that it is for people who have problems in their lives – like my mother 🙂!

"Spirituality is the greatest rebellion there is" - Osho

YOUNG ADULT

Disconnected with religion, yoga and spirituality I went on to spend most of my teenage and early life in the fulfillment of desires of the body & mind. I was living in total ignorance and running around trying to find happiness in the external world – get a great job then I will be happy, find a perfect partner then I will be happy, climb a mountain or jump from a waterfall then I will be happy. And there were great moments of joy, wonder and learning that happened in this time – but inside I felt something was missing. I would become disillusioned with all types of jobs and projects I undertook, my relationships became shorter and shorter and there was a growing disconnect with myself. At this point of my life I found refuge in nature and all types of sports & adventure activities to an extreme. If I was in nature or in an adventure or with someone – I found momentarily happiness and I became very attached to these moments. When I was not able to do these activities I turned to entertainment – binge watching TV, playing video games all night long and indulging in junk food to an extreme. It was only my healthier hobbies (hiking, rock climbing, canyoneering, diving etc.) which helped me maintain my sanity at this point in my life.

MID LIFE CRISIS

By this time I was already settled in Taiwan and had a permanent residency here and decided to quit my job to find my balance in life. I started focusing a lot on my outdoor hobbies and travels and started exploring life as a coach in one of these fields. However at one point I had a very serious back injury and was confined to my home for a few months. This was a time when my more destructive hobbies took over and I was soon falling into a depression.

JOURNEY BACK TO INDIA

It was at this point in my life that I went for a family reunion trip to India with the intention to do some backpacking in the sub continent. Before I could start my big trips – my father developed serious health problems; he got a couple of strokes with very severe implications and I ended up helping in his recovery process.

It was at this time in my life that I got a curiosity to try yoga – with a view that it might help me recover from my injuries and improve my rock climbing skills. Since I had a lot of time at my parental house I scheduled a few sessions with my mother (who is a yoga teacher) – and I remember how hard it was for me! To do a half round of sun salutation seemed like an impossible task to me! I got curious and started doing my own research into yoga (I like reading). Some of the texts were suggesting that yoga was not a physical practice – it was about an inner journey! This seemed very different from what my mother was teaching or practicing – her yoga was more focused on the physical benefits of yoga. I also realized how popular yoga had become in the West and I thought to myself – how about I enter the yoga business; maybe I can start a yoga studio in Taiwan.

So it was with this mindset that I set out to learn more about yoga and decided to go to Rishikesh, the so-called yoga capital of the World. Went to many different yoga schools and found out about the teacher training schools. This seemed like a nice place to start learning the basics of yoga and in March of 2020 I enrolled myself for a 200 hour month long yoga teacher training course at World Peace Yoga School in Rishikesh.

What transpired in the next few weeks and years was life changing – before I could finish the course the covid 19 stuck, the whole of India got into a lockdown and I ended up spending the next 2 years of my life in a yoga school in the yoga capital of the world. In this time I was able to learn from amazing yoga teachers in Rishikesh and later ended up journeying in the Himalayas. It is at this time that I got a glimpse of what yoga is, in the process connected and made peace with myself and the whole universe transformed around me.

Hari Aum Tat Sat

Some of my experiences include:

Hub of Yoga (September 2020) – In this time I started teaching online due to covid restrictions and Hub of Yoga (www.hubofyoga.com/) became an interface to promote traditional yoga instruction in the form of Yoga Workshops, courses and meditation classes.

Swami Samarpan Ashram, Rishikesh, India (Oct, 2020) – Yoga Nidra Training with Swami Samarpanananda Saraswati

Rishikesh Vinyasa Yoga School, Rishikesh, India (Feb 2021) – completed 300 Hour Ashtanga and Vinyasa Yoga Teacher Training

Shivam Neelkanth Yoga Kendra, Dharamshala, India (May 2021) – Spent time in the Himalayas meeting mystics – got initiated into Himalayan Yoga traditions and Babaji teachings by the Himalaya Yogi Sivam

Masters of Calm, Lithuania (Aug 2021) – Masters of Calm is one of the biggest spiritual festival in Europe where I had the chance to lead traditional yoga classes and meditation

In October of 2021 I came back to Taiwan and have been working to promote traditional yoga since then.

Flow Retreat, Taiwan (Nov 2022) – I joined the team at the Flow Retreat, a first of its kind wellness focused center in Hualien, Taiwan which embraces traditional yoga and ayurveda. Here I am working to design the retreat programs with concepts from traditional yoga and teach yoga.

Yoga Alliance – I am currently certified as a Yoga teacher (E-RYT® 200, RYT® 500, YACEP®) and working on the E-RYT 500 track which is planned to be finished by Jan 2024.