Part One: Yoga on Bali
By Tara Khandro
As humans we have a big responsibility to create a harmonic relationship between human and human, human and nature, and human and the Creator Yogi Guru Ketut Bandiastra
My first experience with yoga formerly began 38 years ago upon meeting a newly arrived Ashtanga yogi from India to the United States. He invited me and a few others to reside in the forests of South Carolina. There he opened portals into other dimensions where we journeyed to discover the ancient teachings of yoga as a path of self transformation. At that time South Carolina was rising out of the ashes of race riots. The daily diet consisted of generous helpings of lard, and the dominant Christian theology was baptism by fire. Our tiny band of yogis and yoginis who ate fresh vegetables, made strange breathing sounds and talked about ‘unity’ were viewed as aliens from another planet.
Now, the planet’s forests are an endangered species and yoga is selling everything from Air Wick Air Freshener to Norwich Union Direct Insurance. The premiere yoga magazine in the United States, Yoga Journal in a 2008 survey valued the yoga business in the US at 6 billion dollars a year….during a recession. The study also showed that yoga is a global industry netting nearly 18 billion dollars annually. Doctors now prescribe yoga to patients. Worldwide women are the investment leaders in feeling good, eating well and learning how to lead a flexible life. The evolution of yoga has touched the hearts of the masses and they are demanding yoga apparel, yoga retreats, yoga festivals, yoga on spa menus, yoga in fitness centers, and get away yoga holidays to Bali.
“Bali is the real place for yoga,” A novice yogini from Singapore tells me. Upon completion of a yoga class in which I took photos for this article she approached me to request that I email her the photos. The Kundalini-Tantra yoga class conducted by Guru Ketut Arsana was class number two in her life. I asked if she was aware of the many yoga studios in Singapore: “Yes, but I did research online and Bali has the best offerings. I will go to yoga classes now when I return to Singapore.”
Although yoga has been practiced on Bali since the year 89, Bali’s reputation as a yoga oasis for foreigners has rapidly risen in the past 4 years. Twenty-two years ago when Guru Uma Inder lived for 7 years in a Bali jungle ravine to practice yoga with Shunyta, the laughing yogi, yoga was not a household product on Bali. That all began to change in 2002 when in response to the Bali Bombings, Megan Papenheim and her husband Kadek Gunarta decided to create a portal for yoga teachers and holistic healing practitioners, www.balispirit.com.
Megan and Kadek realized that Bali had grown an international reputation for drugs and drink. They wanted to shift the perception as well as invite foreigners to visit and invest in the island who genuinely appreciated the island’s environment and spiritual culture. Through Bali Spirit.com Megan became a liaison between those who wanted to share their teachings and appropriate venue accommodations. Nine years later thousands of people have entered Bali through this portal seeking to experience all forms of yoga, Balinese healers and yoga masters, dance, music, art and holistic healing, contributing to the creation of a new reputation of Bali as ‘the real place for yoga’.
Bali is an ideal location for yoga enthusiasts. Bali is a Hindu culture and Yoga is an integral practice of the Hindu tradition. There is a saying: “There is no yoga without Hinduism and no Hinduism without yoga”. The many ceremonies honoring Hindu deities and beliefs on Bali provide a support system all over the island for yoga classes, brimming with foreigners and Balinese. The city government of Denpasar now sponsors a free yoga class every Saturday morning on a city football field for its employees, taught by Guru Ketut Bandiastra of Nyuh Khuning. Although India is the birthplace of the Hindu religion and yoga, Bali is perhaps now India’s coming of age sister.
A more subtle form of magnetism for the yoga practitioner to Bali is Bhakti. Bhakti is a Sanskrit word meaning devotion or adoration. Some days on Bali, the air is thick with humidity, exhaust fumes and plastic smoke. Yet behind and containing all of these temporary obscurations; present yet invisible as the vast empty sky is Bhakti. Bhakti is a recognition of and gratitude for the Universal Force vibrating within all matter. Bhakti arises with the incense each time a Balinese man or woman performs daily offerings and ceremonies.
“Yoga takes you into your heart” states Guru Ketut Arsana. Bhakti is a heart tone. Unlike discipline, it cannot be taught, yet it can be caught. The adoration of devototion unfolds from a sincere desire to develop a relationship with the inherent divinity within all matter. Yoga with its alchemical integration of spirit into matter through asana, breathing, meditation, chanting and silence is an easily accessible path leading one towards living from the truth of one’s heart. Our heart center is the place where yoga-which means ‘union’’ manifests. Yoga is a multi-dimensional process that invites us to ‘yoke’ ourselves back together with the divine. The Bhakti atmosphere of Bali serves as a sacred container for this yoking pilgrimage.
Yoga has been an integral part of the culture on Bali before the Westerners arrived to build yoga barns and eco-yoga retreat centers. Guru Made Sumantra provides an excellent history of Balinese yoga on his website: www.balineseyoga.com In short, two yogi sages from Java, arriving at two separate times in ancient history are credited with bringing yoga, founding the first major temples and providing the foundation for Bali’s present blend of Hindu tradition.
In ancient times Bali was known as Nusa Kambangan-“floating island.” East Java yogi Hyang Pasupati took pity on the poor conditions of Bali. In meditation he requested the assistance of the four Spirits of the elemental world-Bedawangnala, a giant turtle representing the earth and the three Kundalini dragons of water, air and fire-to move part of Semeru Mountain to this floating island as well as to what is now Lombok. The four elements did their mystical magic to create Mt. Agung on Bali and Mt. Rinjani on Lombok. In the year 109, Hyang Pasupati sent his three children to Bali. He asked them to devote their yogic practices to grow balance and harmony on the new island.
Years later, the man whom Balinese call the Spiritual Father of Bali, Javanese yogi sage Sri Markandeya received the call through meditation to take 400 followers to Mt. Agung. All save for Markandeya, perished at the hands of a disease. Sri Markandeya returned to Java, meditated and prayed. He then returned to Bali with 800 devotees to build a spiritual foundation for Bali. They arrived at Tohlangkir, what is now Besakih, the Mother Temple. In meditation on mountain Agung , Sri Markandeya received a vision to plant Panca Datu or five kinds of metals to ensure the safety of his disciples. The planting of Panca Datu (a ritual still practiced on Bali) serve as an antenna, which when planted accesses Cosmic energy to bring balance into a situation.
Once the metals were firmly in the ground, Sri Markandeya journeyed to Ubad-meaning ‘medicine’- or what is now Ubud. Here, at the affluence of the Wos Kiwa and Wos Tengen is where Sri Markandeya experienced a profound healing presence. It was in Ubud where he chose to settle and began to spread his teachings. In the village of Guru Made Sumatra’s birth, Payogan, Sri Markandeya built Pucak Payogan temple, a place to practice yoga and meditation.
Many teachers, sages and medicine men began to arrive on Bali in service to influencing a new spiritual tradition on Bali. In communion with the Spirits of the land these forefathers offered yoga infused with ideologies from Hindu, Buddhist, Shinto and Taoist traditions. Thus arose what is now known as Ancient Bali Yoga. In the land, waters and air; in the daily offerings and ubiquitous ceremonies Bali spreads its spiritual goodness grounded in this ancient heritage, inviting yogis from all over the world to initiate, develop and deepen a practical practice of living the yoga of daily life.
Tom and Howard opened their doors to the Canggu community in 2006 when they offered community yoga classes, free of charge at their new eco village resort, Desa Seni. As entrepreneurs they feel one of their first responsibilities is to give back to the community which supports their business. Yoga is a gift that can be given and received by everyone. Tom says that “Spirituality is growing all over the world. Through yoga, people learn how to grab fear and conquer it. We opened another studio because we have growing numbers of students from the community that take yoga daily and we have groups from all over the world that want to stay for one week for private retreats. Now we have two studios that accommodate both needs.”
Desa Seni is built with an awareness of the yoga of daily life. The recently baptized studio was designed using sacred geometry and sits surrounded by lush organic gardens that feed the Desa Seni guests. Karma Yoga-selfless service- is put into action at Desa Seni through programs like “Making Dreams Come True” an orphanage fundraising effort, “Pancamaya offering free yoga classes to the local community, and “Keep Bali Clean” an education program that promotes action towards proper garbage disposal. These initiatives for Desa Seni according to Tom and Howard serve to increase awareness that we are “One world, One love”.
The blossoming of yoga worldwide is an opportunity for yoga entrepreneurs to build a business that fosters an awareness that the individual is an integral player in planetary sustainability. Megan and Kadek opened The Yoga Barn in Ubud in 2008. It now offers 7 classes daily of yoga and dance 7 days a week. Like Desa Seni, Yoga Barn is building a new studio to serve the yoga population growth on Bali. The Bali Spirit Festival, also created by the Yoga Barn duo is in its 5th season. It is one of hundreds of yoga festivals around the world that attracts an international yoga audience. Many say its high ticket price- 100 dollars a day-is too expensive yet judging by the increasing numbers that yearly attend the festival it seems that the festival attracts those who are in a position during these downturn economic times, to return to their home countries and choose to enhance the quality of living in their communities.
The Bali Spirit Festival is not a profitable venture. Megan believes that as a business owner, her responsibility is to make money, support her family with a comfortable lifestyle and be aware of the lifestyle’s interdependent relationship with the earth and community. Then you ‘give the rest away.’ The Bali Spirit Festival and Yoga Barn charity events have raised thousands of dollars to donate to Bali Yayasans such as Ayo! Kita Bicara HIV & AIDS, Sumatran Orangutan Society, Bumi Sehat- a natural birthing center-, IDEP, SenangHati- a charity for disabled Balinese-, and Yayasan WidyaGuna - a children’s orphanage.
The popularity of yoga on Bali evolves in response to humanity’s current evolutionary consciousness expansion. According to the planets Indigenous cultures as well as the Hindu cosmic calendar, the earth and Her people’s are in the midst of an unprecedented consciousness shift. Reuben Blades, a Native American activist once said: ‘If we don’t change directions we just might end up where we are headed.” Humanity has arrived at a crucial crossroads with two signs pointing the way: Fear or Love. The earth is calling for each of us to become conscious choice makers. The alchemy of yoga is an inside job. The living practice of yoga is a guru that can point us in the right direction.
Om Swastyastu
Part II: Through The Yoga Door
Contact the writer @ tarakhadro@yahoo.com
