When your body is sick it needs the help of a strong mind to repair it. Your fear worsens the situation; fear makes the body weaker. Fear is not in the body. Fear is in your mind. When you don’t accept what is happening in the body, and when you identify yourself as the body, the fear comes. That drains you completely, so you lose your immunity. The mind over-thinks and that leads to anxiety, worry, and fear. As you face challenges in life, don’t allow yourself to become overcome fear. I always say that faith and fear never go together. If you have faith, what is there to be afraid of? There is nothing in this world to fear. If you have fear, if you’re afraid, it is because you have forgotten your faith. I will tell you a story: Once, millions of people were gathering at a religious place of pilgrimage. There was a very saintly old person who couldn’t really walk that far distance to join everyone. He had a small hut somewhere on the way, but it was hundreds of miles away. The pilgrims were passing through, and he had the opportunity to see all who were going to the pilgrimage. At one point he saw a kind of peculiar figure, not a human figure, going toward the place of pilgrimage.  MORE

Right now, all of us are whirling through space on this tiny ball we call Earth. It is our common home. With each spin, we mark a day. With each revolution around the sun, we all add a year to our lives. On this fragile ball—a mere speck in the inconceivable vastness of the universe—we are born, we grow, we strive, we have our successes and failures, our joys and sorrows, and then we pass from view. Our destinies are inescapably linked, yet often we forget how interconnected we all are. Sri Swami Satchidananda used to say: “We are interdependent, cells of one universal body.” The Reverend Martin Luther King Jr. echoed the same truth: “We are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny. Whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly.” Today, we may be on the brink of a global pandemic. The tiny virus that is wreaking havoc is no respecter of race, religion, gender, sexual orientation, nations, or borders. Personal philosophy, political persuasion, power or position are irrelevant as it sweeps across the world. It laughs at our bluster, our arrogance, our prejudice and the many ways we torment and subjugate one another.  MORE

As we gather for various events celebrating the 50 year anniversary of Integral Yoga in San Francisco, we are reminded again and again of the importance of spiritual community.  We have committed ourselves this month to making good use of the support and inspiration we derive from practicing Yoga together, and contributing to the strength of our community in any way that we can. Both the Yoga and Buddhist traditions use the word sangha to signify spiritual community—those who share the same spiritual values and offer a source of support to each other. In Buddhism, sangha is considered one of the three forms of refuge for a spiritual seeker, along with the Buddha and the Dharma. Yoga teachings also consider spiritual community to be an essential element of a spiritual path. Walking the spiritual path challenges us to examine the moments when we find it difficult to be at peace in ourselves and compassionate with others. It requires a steady effort to disengage ourselves from habitual, self-centered thinking and most of us need a regular meditation practice to be free of such deeply ingrained patterns.  MORE

IWD is s a global day celebrating the social, economic, cultural and political achievements of women. This year's theme is: #EachforEqual. An equal world is an enabled world. Individually, we're all responsible for our own thoughts and actions—all day, every day. We can actively choose to challenge stereotypes, fight bias, broaden perceptions, improve situations and celebrate women's achievements. Collectively, each one of us can help create a gender equal world. Integral Yoga International is so proud that Nalanie Harilela Chellaram (founder and chairperson of the Integral Yoga Centers in Gibraltar and Spain) was a featured panelist during Gibraltar's IWD Conference 2020. The panel's theme was: "Why is Wellbeing Crucial For Us All?" You can watch an excerpt from the introduction to the panel discussion here.