After the passing of my Teacher in 2005, the seed that he had planted in me started sprouting and growing into a small tree. My mind, my heart and my will were all aligned: I must continue sharing his teachings, even if in a very small container. I must translate this knowledge in a down to earth way and make it accessible to others. It is with this intent at heart that I decided to open my first business and Yoga School in the fall of the same year.
I must be honest here. I cringe at the idea of associating myself with Yoga, Tantra, or the so-called healing arts. These words are associated with cliches that make me want to puke. However, truth be told, Yoga is the study of Life and Creation, starting with the human body, and shows us how to find harmony and peace in our everyday life by tuning to Dharma, which is the Transcendent Pulsating Rhythm of Nature’s Eternal Way. It is not in any way shape or form what you see today. Also, do keep in mind that Yoga/Tantra is not inherently Hindu, even though its Tree may have at some point in the distant past been planted in India. These are eternal Sciences that belong to Earth and are gifted to humanity by the Creator. Although I have a tremendous respect and love for India’s Heritage, I am not a hindu nor do I identify with its religions. I am a seeker of truth and truth does not belong to any race, group or land.
At the time, I was just a young man, with little experience in the real world, and even less in the business world. I was an idealist, believing that people wanted to hear the truth and would receive it with open arms. That phase of my life was also corresponding with the beginning of Web 2.0, which was creating a massive wave of information being spread all over the world, as well as the rise of Social Media which would completely revolutionize the way we live and interact with each other.
A tad overzealous and blind to the realities of the marketplace, I jumped in head first. I didn’t realize that in order to teach, even though I had an inherent talent as a communicator, I had to become an expert teacher, which meant I had to perfect my craft which may take decades if not more. I didn’t realize that in order to be heard, I had to build my reputation, and that the Yoga/Healing arts had an exponentially growing community, that I had to make my place and position myself within it, and that people play dirty just like in any other field in order to “win”, even if they pretend to be non violent. In other words, I had everything to learn, literally, in order to accomplish my objectives.
In the light of these realizations, my commitment only increased as I dedicated myself even more to my craft in the hope of truly becoming a living example of my Master’s Teaching.
As of today, I have been running my school for 17 years. It has taken many names, shapes and forms over the years, but has remained faithful to its original intent. At first, it was literally my school. It was my training ground, the place where I was learning about yoga, teaching, community building, business, dealing with students, disease, sexuality, hierarchies of powers, the occult, and most importantly developing the skills of a medicine man.
After years of study, practice and thousands of hours teaching and offering guidance and counsel, I eventually graduated to the next level, and became a master teacher. What is a master teacher? In short, it’s an individual who can perform his or her job masterfully, without any friction. They are professionals. It’s no longer personal. They are not trying to prove themselves any longer. They work either for money or by pure vocation, but it’s not about them anymore. It’s totally about the task at hand. They have seen it all, at least at the level they are operating on, and know how to handle whatever may present itself calmly and in a detached manner. They also have a very clear sense of who they are, and stay in their lane, while slowly but surely expanding it.
Through this sometimes grueling process, I offered classes, initiations, workshops, professional training, conferences, seminars, traveled to teach, and met thousands of people from all social strata. I explored in great depth the universe of the alternative health movement, unravelled its power structure and politics as I participated from close and far to its evolving landscape until I eventually felt I had accomplished all that I had to, seen and experienced what I wanted and was ready to move on, even if this meant I would be losing on significant financial opportunities.
Truth be told, this multi billion dollar industry became saturated, lifeless and stale, and it was just too small for me. I was suffocating. I didn’t want to continue playing the charade anymore and squeeze myself in order to teach people who in reality, for the most part, were seeking entertainment, pleasure, and palliative measures to cope with their ailments, rather than medicine to truly heal and transform. “Americana” had taken total control and the small window of opportunity that remained open to spread truth had now been shut. It was time to move on.
In 2019, I finally made the move and closed the school to the public. I had had enough of the B.S. and endless hypocrisy of the industry which was becoming more and more politicized. I was ready to go deeper and let go of the safety of the shore.
In 2020, during the pandemic, I restructured the organization and decided to focus on a core of advanced students who wished to sincerely devote their lives to the JyotaWali Tantric Path, to co-create a community whose focus would be to embody these teachings in all aspects of the human experience.
As for the Anaami project, it’s my Seva ~ selfless service. An extension or outreach program of the School. At this stage, we are focusing on building a men’s platform, who, I feel, desperately need to receive guidance. It’s quite a challenge to be honest. Modern men are mentally immature, and physically weak. They are numb to themselves and have become completely anesthetized. In short, they are brainwashed, and cannot fathom how deep the rabbit hole actually goes, while all the while pretending they know it all.
Furthermore, men, in general, do not hold in very high esteem the yogic or healing arts. They find them to be fluffy, unscientific, wishy-washy, ‘not manly enough’ and too feminine. Indeed, the current iterations of these practices have rendered them into gigantic memes. However, as I have stated earlier, these Divine Sciences have been hacked and compromised, and one of my core objectives is to shatter the stereotypes and share the knowledge in a manner that will inspire men from all walks of life to dive within and discover how powerful, necessary, practical and non-dogmatic yogic science truly is.