:: July/August 2004 Volume 3/Number 4

Krishna Kaur :

By Julie Deife

Krishna Kaur is a Los Angeles native who has been teaching Kundalini Yoga as taught by Yogi Bhajan for over 30 years. She is the founder and Program Director of Yoga for Youth as well as the President and Founding Member of the International Association of Black Yoga Teachers (IABYT). 
In November of 2003, Krishna Kaur and IABYT
members traveled to Ghana with the goal of establishing a chapter of IABYT. 

Shopping is an irresistible pasttime for women in every culture. Here, Krishna Kaur is also treated to a lesson in wearing the items correctly. Photo courtesy of Krishna Kaur

Julie: Did you accomplish what you set out to do, with this trip to Ghana?

Krishna Kaur: Yes, I'm happy to say that IABYT has been established as an official non-profit organization there.  I anticipate our work in the community will lead to an official NGO status as well. We're identifying yoga teachers in Senegal, Mali, Ivory Coast, Benin, Kenya, and more.  We’re looking to bring the awareness of yoga as a tool for health and healing to those areas and as a way to unify the spirit and consciousness of the diaspora.  

Julie:  I'd like to get a sense of how you, on a personal level, felt about taking this trip.

Krishna Kaur: I went over there willing, receptive, and ready to submerge myself deeply into the reality there.  It was not a big fanfarey type thing, rather to be present and allow myself to absorb, interact, be open to the subtle ways in which understanding seeps in.

That doesn't just happen in the obvious ways of through the senses, but somewhere through the pores of the skin and the soles of the feet a slow subtle dawning of awareness and awakening takes place. I also felt a tremendous depth of spirituality in people that was beyond form and definition, a natural harmony with the earth and the elements, and with each other.

Julie:  Please tell me more about the harmony you felt existed among people.

Krishna Kaur:  There was an acceptance of varying personal rhythms, of ways of receiving, for instance.  I noted a spiritual maturity in the ways the Ghanains responded to each other and to situations.  At the same time it wasn't as though they were ok with their circumstances and situations, or that there was nothing to strive for and achieve. There was just as much energy, enthusiasm, excitement and ambition to achieve goals, but the approach to the ambition, passion, desire, and longing was more graceful and accepting.  They lacked the sense of fear and insecurity and anxiousness that prevents us here in this country, on the whole, to be in a state of oneness and present with each other.

Julie:   Do you have an example of that?

Krishna Kaur:  The children tell the story.  I wondered, how is it that the children are managing to be such graceful, generous sharing people, especially when they have so little?  They will come and greet you because you are a guest, and they are taught to do that because you are a stranger and an elder.  Where is this coming from?  There is no way in the world I can imagine that people in the US could develop that kind of grace currently because of the mentality of fear and lack.

Julie: How do the children interact with their parents?

Krishna Kaur: I never heard a parent say 'sit down', 'be quiet', 'go away', 'go play' - and children were everywhere.  The children were interested and present. At the same time they were carefree, independent, confident, graceful and steady youngsters.  It's my impression that they were clear about who they were.  I compare that with kids here who are unruly and unhappy, crawling and climbing on everyone.

I believe a lot of it has to do with the fact that kids are wrapped and strapped to their mothers' backs - not the chest - for a couple of years.  There is something very secure about being on the back and close to their moms. The child is present throughout every adult conversation. They are not shooed away but allowed to learn at the feet of the elders. 

 Julie: In your opinion, does this conform to a typical American image of children in Africa?

Krishna Kaur: Not exactly. We see all kinds of documentaries of starving children and poverty and blight and illness and desperation.  From those images it could seem like Ghana is a pathetic and horrible place to go because there's so much pain and so much lack - and granted that is true in many parts of the African continent.  However, in Ghana it is not as you might expect from the way the news media projects it.  Because there is not an excessive amount of toys, the children have a chance to create a relationship with the earth and that is very healthy.

The humbleness of the lifestyle is something that you get used to when you're in a third world country.  Seeing beneath the material limits provides something rich and powerful for the soul.

Julie: What changes did you notice from your previous visit to Ghana?

Krishna Kaur:  When I was in Ghana in 1969-1970 it was just a few years after they had finally gotten their European colonizers to relinquish their overt hold over their governance.  People were excited about the possibility of their sovereignty.  They were hopeful that they would have finally a chance to be themselves, express themselves, share themselves with the world and be seen and related to as equal partners on the world stage with the Europeans and others.  That hope was slowly squashed in the sense that the Europeans never really relinquished hold over the governance, just the form it was manifesting was different. 

The Ghanains bartered their cultural richness for a promise of a level of modernization that would give them a better standing on the world stage, and that's a very superficial kind of positioning.  Part of the bargaining chip to gain freedom, was they had to give up their resources. 

Consequently, I found them a lot less independent today than they were then. With this new form of neo colonialism there is also a tremendous media pressure to look like the US, gain favor, be accepted and acknowledged by the US.

Julie: So, why yoga?

Krishna Kaur:  Even though there is a greater sense of connectedness in Ghana than there is here, there is still a need to bring the practice of yoga and that consciousness to the African community.

There is a yoga tradition here, too. I heard from some of the more senior yoga teachers in Ghana that they had had a yoga teacher years ago who was a Ghanain who taught them hatha yoga postures.   His name is Stanley Bitteman. He was married, had several children and lived the life of a householder for 26 years. Then he decided to leave his home and family to live the life of a sadhu. We found him in a remote village not far off the main road.  He made his home on a rock surrounded by empty oil drums. There he contemplates, meditates, practices his yoga and counsels people who come to him. Children love to listen to his teachings. 

Julie:   In what ways did you, or do you, think you can impact the yoga in Ghana?

Krishna Kaur: First, there is a need for more teachers: people who were coming to the lectures and workshops were so hungry.  Since we're from the US it seems doubters are  more inclined to believe us.

Secondly, there is a need to dispel the myths about yoga.  We put a lot of energy in communicating to the public that yoga was not a religion but a technology to increase health and wellness. This piqued their interest.

They understood deeply the philosophy of yoga.  But their practices were modest in terms of the number of postures and kriyas they knew.  By the time we left they knew many more postures.  We basically introduced a tremendous amount of information, experience and techniques.  They were able to deepen their practice with more knowledge about pranayama, meditation and kriyas.

They want to know more about how yoga can address conditions resulting from diabetes, high blood pressure and asthma and we can do that.

Julie:  What styles of yoga did you bring?

Krishna Kaur: Bikram, Iyengar, Vinyasa Flow, Ashtanga, Kripalu, Kundalini.  Whatever the teacher was trained in is the kind we taught, but mostly hatha and a lot of meditation. 

Julie: Will the yoga be compatible with other indigenous spiritual practices, in your view?

Krishna Kaur:  I understand that prior to the invasion of the Europeans that the spiritual practices of the indigenous people, were really a way of life.   We even now are relating to it as lifestyle as opposed to something separate from our lives. But our challenge is in convincing people who don't understand that yoga is not a religion. 

Julie:  Did you feel a sense of reconnection in Ghana and if so, in what ways?

Krishna Kaur: I felt, as Africans in America, returning to the land of our ancestors and experiencing the subtlety of that culture was beautiful.  It was important for us to find the elders in the villages who were living close to the authentic way of life.  It was important for us to get the feeling for our ancestors' integrity, honesty, and spirituality even though we've grown up through the generations in this country often being turned against our background and history.  It was important to go back and connect with our dreams; it made them more tangible.

Julie:  What are your plans to return to Ghana??

Krishna Kaur:  My intention is to go to Ghana within the year to conduct a teacher training course. We chose Ghana as IABYT's first stop on the African continent because of their outreach to African Americans to repatriate to Ghana and to become more involved in the community there and participate in the healing process that is important to all of us.

Julie: What would you like to say in closing?

Krishna Kaur: IABYT is growing and we are projecting an all Africa yoga summit in 2006.  We want to approach the issues surrounding the Aids virus and the effect it is having on communities around the world.  It is important for us to facilitate ways to impact health and healing through diet, yoga, and meditation and try to free ourselves from the burden of poor health.

Reach Krishna Kaur at www.blackyogateachers.com or www.yogaforyouth.org