YOGALife I Summer 2010 - Sivananda Yoga

Yoga of the Heart
says, and again this is my way of thinking because
I wrote from Sat Yuga consciousness, is “this is who
you are.” Ahimsa does not say to you, don’t kill anyone.
Julie: What does ahimsa say?
Nischala: It says to have reverence for all beings, which
is a very different way of looking at it. It’s not someone
standing there and shaking their finger at you and
saying don’t do this. Instead it’s saying (whispered)
“remember who you are. Remember if you’re a divine
being, how you would act.” I’d have reverence for all
beings. I’d speak the truth with integrity.It’s not that
I wouldn’t steal anything; it’s not even in my thoughts.
And instead of saying non-greed or greedlessness, I’d say
I have an awareness of abundance. If I have an
awareness of abundance, why would I be greedy?
I’d think it’s just going to keep flowing.
Julie: Clearly, you took it from a different perspective.
What yoga tells us is that there’s really
only one cause for disease, which is that
we have forgotten who we are."
Nischala: I took it standing at a Sat Yuga
consciousness…. already that… namaste… thou art that.
Julie: Your thoughts on yoga therapy as profession.
What should we be paying attention to?
Nischala: Yoga has very little to do with anything other
than a relationship with ourselves. And as westerners, we
don’t really know very much about a relationship with
ourselves. We’re told “don’t’ just stand there, do
something.” We can’t sit with ourselves for ten or fifteen
minutes even, let alone a long period of time.
The most important thing to me about yoga therapy
is that the therapist knows who they are. And how we
know who we are is that we have some kind of practice.
It doesn’t have to be sitting for five hours, but it has to
be some kind of relationship with self.
I’ve worked with many people over the years and
people get burned out. Or they go and they say I’m
gonna save this person, and what happens is that for
people who are ill, their prana is generally lower. If you
sit with them it’s almost like a siphon. If you’re not filling
completely, if you’re not getting it from within you
or above or wherever you get it from you’re going
to be empty.
Julie: As healers then, we need to maintain good prana.
Nischala: That’s another question, who’s the healer?
When I’ve sat with people, I don’t really see them as
someone who is ill. They’re just another being on this
plain, trying to realize who they are, and the body is
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YOGALife I Summer 2010
what’s convincing them to do it. If I ever thought for one
second that I was healing them, my prana would be
deleted. I know that I’m not healing them. And I tell my
students and patients who come to me, “I can’t heal
you.” You’re the only one who can heal you with this
divine energy. I can’t do it. It has to come from within.
Julie: People who call themselves healers are people
who know who they are and allow others to heal
themselves, is that right?
Nischala: They’re holding up a mirror of strong prana
to somebody, saying, “this is what it looks like, mimic
that.” They’re teaching people how to heal themselves.
That is the greatness of yoga.
When we started with our heart study in our
Commonweal Cancer Program, one of the main things
that we realized in the beginning was that we couldn’t
heal anybody. And we would tell people this, and they
would get real upset with us and they would say, “well,
that’s what I came to you for.” I’d say, “no, no, no, you
didn’t come to us to be healed, you came to us because
you didn’t know how, because you needed guidance
to help yourself heal.”
I think it’s a very presumptuous to call yourself a
healer. And I don’t really know any great healers who
would call themselves healers. You can be seen as a
healer. You can be known as a healer, but you always
know who the healer is, really.
Julie: The discussion of yoga therapy as an emerging
profession is pretty new. What do you think about that?
Nischala: It scares me. I overheard someone in the
elevator at the yoga therapy conference say that some
people are saying that you should have a bachelor’s
degree before you can be a yoga therapist. I’m thinking
that’s not to me what a yoga therapist is.
Julie: What is it?
Nischala: It’s becoming more and more academic, and
if that’s what people think is yoga therapy, then who
am I to say it’s not? I just know that when I sit with
someone, they don’t care what kind of degree I have;
they don’t care what kind of study I did, they just care
if I’m present with them, if I’m peaceful and if I love
them. But it’s the American way, what’s happening here
and with yoga in this country. To a certain extent I’m
part of it, and to a certain extent I refuse to be part of it.
Julie: Can you have yoga without the spiritual?
Nischala: Can you have water without wetness? I don’t
think it’s possible.
Nischala Joy Devi teaches at retreats
and conferences worldwide.
www.abundantwellbeing.com