ABOUT LIVING YOGA
An in-depth look from Prem Anjali, the executive producer of the film
LIVING YOGA: The life and teachings of Swami Satchidananda is divided into five main sections: Asanas, nature, balance, wellness, and interfaith. Each section opens with an inspiring quote from the Yoga Sutras of Patanjali chanted by Dr. M.A. Jayashree of Mysore, India.
According to Karen Karuna Kreps, a Yoga teacher with over 30 years teaching experience: “I think this film might be one of the best teaching aids and promotional tools a Yoga teacher can have.”
LIVING YOGA opens with Sri Swami Satchidananda (Sri Gurudev) talking about the goal of Yoga, which really gives an overview and summary of the heart and soul of the film. He says:
Your goal should be to be easeful. You disturb your ease by doing wrong things and you call yourself dis-eased. To be peaceful—if a person lives based on this “I, me, mine,” he can never, never be peaceful. And then to be useful. Nothing will disturb you if your life is based on selflessness. You can always be peaceful; and, when you are peaceful, you are a happy person.
After a brief biography of Gurudev’s life, retold by him, pop artist Peter Max recounts early meetings with Gurudev: “The yogic type of thinking about love and peace was in the air as a fashion; but for it to truly become part of your lifestyle, not just an idea, was very, very big. I said to him, ‘Swami, America needs you.’ I remember, he kinda laughed and slapped his knee. ‘Why? America needs me? Well, if America needs me maybe I’ll come.’ ” Cut to scenes from the Woodstock music festival which Gurudev opened and which earned him the affectionate title of “Woodstock Guru.”
YOGA AND WELLNESS
One of the wonderful and very helpful features of the film is that you can access the major sections (or chapters on the DVD) by selecting them from the main menu. Yoga teachers will find the chapter entitled, “Yoga Asanas” a very useful segment to show students, because it features Sandra (Amrita) McLanahan, MD giving an overview of the physiological benefits of a full Yoga class.
Dr. McLanahan, a resident of Yogaville, has for many years been one of the nation's leading experts on the medical effects of Yoga. She served for 20 years as Director of Stress Management Training for the Preventive Medicine Research Institute, where she was a crucial part of the research team led by Dean Ornish, M.D. Dr. Ornish’s research established that heart disease can be reversed by a combination of a low-fat, high-fiber vegetarian diet, Yoga, meditation, and group support.
There is another breakout chapter titled “Yoga and Wellness” that features Dr. Ornish and, also, Mehmet Oz, MD (author of You: The Owner’s Manual series and a regularly featured guest on “The Oprah Winfrey Show”). In this chapter, a compelling recovery story is told by Richard Cripe, now a certified Yoga teacher who healed himself of heart disease through Yoga and the Ornish program. In this section, Dr. Ornish discusses his latest research with prostate cancer patients.
Dr. Oz describes in detail how Yoga enhanced his personal and professional life and the medical benefits he’s observed with patients:
Yoga allowed me to get my body focused on something so my mind could be freed to focus on emptiness. So, although the asanas are important, it was the deep breathing and meditative aspects of Yoga that provided the deepest lessons. These tools, which at a very basic level for a healthy human, have benefit, provide an incremental benefit to folks who have illness. In particular, if you can combine Yoga with meditation, you begin to see medicinal benefits in a whole slew of different areas, including management of arrhythmias, asthmatic conditions, autoimmune problems—places where our body has gone a little bit awry and can be rebalanced and reset if you can use a tool like Yoga.
For Yoga teachers who are branching out into Yoga therapy, this section is an extremely useful teaching tool, and it’s something that Richard Cripe has been screening during the presentations he makes at hospitals and medical centers on the medical benefits of Yoga. Recently, he gave a presentation to the St. Louis Association for Cardiovascular and Pulmonary Rehabilitation. Richard explains:
There were four presenters during this program, and I was the only person there who wasn’t a physician. We began by showing LIVING YOGA’s chapter 8 (section on Yoga and Wellness). Then they introduced me to give the rest of my presentation. It was wonderful because showing this segment from the film had established my credibility before I even got on the stage! Here’s Oprah, Dr. Oz and Dean Ornish talking about the benefits of Yoga, and then you hear my story. I walked onto the stage to the biggest applause and excitement! That’s the power of media [laughs]! LIVING YOGA is a wonderful forum to establish credibility for Yoga teachers and stimulate discussion about the intricacies of Yoga and how that can work with lifestyle changes.
The filmmakers faced many challenges in creating the film. As Joshua, the film’s writer/co-producer describes, “Initially it was overwhelming, daunting. Here is Sri Gurudev, who had dedicated his life to helping people around the world awaken to their true Self—one of the truly great teachers in Yoga history—and here we were, outsiders to the community. I’d never had the privilege of studying Integral Yoga. My hope was that, by combining whatever understanding I had of the Yoga traditions with Shiva’s (the film’s director) terrific skills as a filmmaker, somehow all that would allow us to adequately portray Sri Gurudev’s extraordinary life and achievements.”
YOGA AND BALANCE
Joshua and Shiva wanted to provide viewers with practical insight into Gurudev’s teachings and, at the same time, create an engaging viewing experience. How to accomplish this? One of the ways is vividly evident in the section on “Yoga and Nature.” Shot entirely on location at The Institute for Greatly Endangered & Rare Species (T.I.G.E.R.S.) in South Carolina, Dr. Bhagavan Antle takes the viewers behind-the-scenes of the Institute. Viewers get up close and personal with the magnificent big cats. This segment has a broad appeal. Dr. Antle explains that, “The practice of Yoga and the application of Yoga is that we take our mind out of the past and try and be here now—like the tiger is all the time.”
Gurudev’s teachings were very broad and universal. They appealed to people of every age, and we tried to not leave anyone out. Could we make a film about Yoga that had at least a little something for everyone and anyone? In the section, “Yoga and Balance,” we wanted to illustrate Gurudev’s teaching that Yoga is something to be integrated into daily life. As he explains in the film,
Yoga teaches you to face the problem. Analyze it. Solve it; not to run away. In fact, what good of your Yoga if it can only be practiced in the Himalayan cave? You are no good for anything or anybody. And not everybody can do it. So if you are a yogi, stay in the midst of the din and bustle of the town, of the city, of the life and still maintain your equanimity.
To highlight this, the film has interviews with some of the younger generation of Yogavillians as they talk about how they are striving to live Yoga every moment. A special highlight is music from the popular Goth band, Bella Morte, whose co-founder Gopal Metro is a Yogaville resident.
Additionally in this section, are highlights of how Yoga is being applied in settings such as school systems (Yoga At School program), with special needs children (in the work of Sonia Sumar and Yoga for the Special Child), and in the arts (Felix Cavaliere, Padma Rasiah-Cantu). Public school teacher Denise Winchester recounts her journey of first getting into Yoga and how it has changed her life. “I have quit smoking and that was due to the IYI for sure. Food is my vice. It takes a lot more than beans and greens to fill me up. I’m Italian, I grew up on a lot of different heavy foods, and I fall off the wagon from time to time, but I am eating more tofu and that was really unthinkable to me for a long time.”
YOGA AND INTERFAITH
The role of spirituality in wellness is explored throughout the film, and the link between inner peace and outer peace is also highlighted, particularly in the section “Yoga and Interfaith.” Since Sri Gurudev was a pioneer in the interfaith movement and promoted world peace by bringing together people of all backgrounds and beliefs so they could learn respect for all the different paths and realize their common spirit, the filmmakers wanted to include some of his close friends and leaders in the interfaith movement.
Discussing their views on this subject in the film are: Rev. James P. Morton (former dean of the Cathedral Church of St. John the Divine and president of The Interfaith Center of New York), Br. David Steindl-Rast, OSB (senior Benedictine monk and founder of gratefulness.org) and Rabbi Joseph Gelberman (All Faiths Seminary International). Rabbi Gelberman points out that thinking “You are white, I am black, you are a Jew, I am Gentile, you are Christian, you are this—is absolutely stupid! It doesn’t fit us. We are all children of that one God and we are brothers and sisters and we have to love each other.”
LIVING YOGA
Throughout the film we hear from senior Integral Yoga monks, Swamis Asokanandaji, Karunanandaji, Ramanandaji, Dayanandaji and others whose lives and Yoga teaching have been influenced by the teachings of Swami Satchidananda including nutritionist Manu Dawson, Jivamukti founders Sharon Gannon and David Life, Cardiac Yoga therapist Dr. Mala Cunningham, among others. As Joshua Greene explained:
Because information alone does not move the hearts of viewers, the documentary must reflect the emotion of its subject. Supporting the narrative we needed connecting thread of graphics, quotes, music, and symbols, intended to create a sensation of peace, contentment, and harmony.
I think the filmmakers achieved this goal as evidenced in this review of LIVING YOGA by Sabine for Yoga-Live Magazine (UK):
The juxtaposition of visually striking, soul-uplifting and often unexpected contrasts in the broad spectrum of film participants, chosen imagery, sounds, colors and settings conveys a powerful sense of the multi-dimensionality of Yoga and creates a deep sense of universal unity and harmony. Listening to the pure and enlightened voice of Sri Swami Satchidananda dispensing his simple though powerful teachings takes the listener to an elevated place of peace and inexpressible joy and provides valuable opportunities for physical, mental and spiritual transformation on the path to Self-realization.
Swami Satchidananda was always so encouraging to our Yoga teachers. He gave special satsangs to teacher trainee groups in Yogaville and elsewhere, and he attended TT graduation ceremonies whenever he was in residence in Yogaville. Gurudev imparted valuable instructions to guide teachers on their journey. He often said: “You teach by living Yoga. That's why those who come to Yogaville for the Teacher Training are able to absorb so much in such a short time. So, learn to live the Yoga.”
That is why we chose this title for the film, and we hope it will inspire and encourage the viewers to take this message to heart and to really, deeply and truly live Yoga. As Sabine, in her Yoga-Live magazine review so beautifully expressed, “May we, too, be sincere in our intention to give of ourselves selflessly and cultivate the spirit of equanimity and the quality of compassion, truth and forbearance at all times so that we may become channels for universal love.”
