Teaching Enlightenment

Professor Narasimhan, one of the world’s foremost scholars on Indian culture and Ancient Indian sciences, doesn’t put on airs. He shows up to teach his class on the Yoga Sutras and Vedic philosophy looking as if his group of eager yoga students just woke him up from a nap. He rubs his eyes wearily as he takes his seat on the slightly raised platform in his office. Both his white T-shirt and hair are rumpled. He looks like he could, quite literally, teach this class in his sleep.

But once he begins fielding questions from students he comes alive, his deep brown eyes shine, his voice takes on the quality of a man who knows what he is talking about.

Narasimhan and his sister Jayashree founded the Anantha Research Foundation in Mysore to teach the non-asana (that is, non-physical) aspects of yoga. It is the place to go if you want to learn to Sanskrit or how to chant the Yoga Sutras or meditation or the teachings of the ancient sacred Hindu texts.

In Mysore, Narasimhan and Jayashree are famous. And not just among the thousands of yoga students who flock there from all over the world to practice in the epicenter of Ashtanga yoga. You can pretty much walk up to any rickshaw driver on any corner in Mysore and say, “Jayashree’s,” and they will know exactly where to take you.

Narasimhan draws serious students of yoga, seekers who are largely already in possession of solid yogic philosophy. Their questions, lofty, usually include lots of Sanskrit words. My first question to Narasimhan was a tad more basic. “I’m worried,” I said, “because I’ve been told there’s no such thing as converting to Hinduism. You have to be born Hindu.”

Narasimhan rubbed his face, tugged slightly on his chin, which was covered in five o’clock shadow (it was, in fact, 5:00) and said, “Do you want to be a legal Hindu or a practicing Hindu?”

“Practicing!” I said.

“Okay, then. You’re a Hindu.”

Those words made me happy because he also said I can be both a Hindu and a Catholic. Hinduism, unlike the modern religions, is inclusive.

Studying with Narasimhan and chanting with Jayashree was the highlight of my time in Mysore. Here are some of the many nuggets of wisdom I took away with me:

“Any law based on punishment will be broken.”

 “We always define ourselves with respect to others. We are a son or a daughter or a husband… Through yoga we can reach the state of Samadhi, where we come to ourselves. When we reach that state of equanimity we become one with the Divine.”

“When you experience the Divine, you should be able to see it in all people.”

“The works and words of all great thinkers, scientists, inventors, artists are the result of an explosion of an inner experience. Einstein had that experience when he realized the interaction between space and time; Newton had that experience when recognized gravity.”

“When you touch the Divinity through anything, your message will be remembered.”

“When you stop your energy from going outside yourself, you will know yourself.”

“The state of equanimity and contentment is the state of God.”

“You must purify the senses to see God.”

“Theology justifies the rituals of religion. Theology + Ritual = Religion.

“When you don’t know what’s good for you and you select what’s bad, you suffer.”

“Yoga removes all impediments and makes you aware of yourself and your environment.”

“The more in tune you are with your environment, the more happiness you experience.”

“Through the practice of yoga you become flexible and start adjusting to situations without frustration.”

 “In the Indian system, all souls reach God because it is a certainty. God allows freedom to run away because He knows you’ll come back.”