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The Sadhana Files: Interviews with Shiva Yogis

	Interview with Swami Dayananda Interview with Maria Lazzaro Interview with Dr Patrick Mahaffey Interview with Michael Wing Interview with Patricia ní Ivor Interview with Kaarin Fairfax

			Interview with Swami Dayananda

		Isobel conducted this email interview with Swami Dayananda who, along with Ma Jan, runs the Shiva Yoga centre in Adelaide. At the end of May, Swamiji will be visiting Adelaide and holding Satsang’s at the centre. How did you get started on this spiritual path? It was June, 1976. I was an avid hatha yogi, living in New York City and working as a book editor. I used to bicycle to a noon class three times a week—can you believe that? Through New York City traffic! Anyway, the place I had been going to moved and I found a new teacher. She had a picture of Baba Muktananda and played a tape of Om Namah Shivaya being chanted. Baba had just arrived in South Fallsburg in upstate New York. So I went up to an Intensive Weekend. I had a phenomenal shaktipat experience and six months later I was in Ganeshpuri. I have never been the same. Can you tell us more about how these experiences affected you? From the beginning I found the philosophy resonated deeply. In our tradition, we say everything is Consciousness. I loved that. Baba used to quote the Upanishads and Kashmir Shaivism and I found it uplifting. It all made perfect sense. My first experiences opened an understanding of the ultimate connectedness of Consciousness. I also experienced the Shakti, the spiritual energy, as palpable. I loved the chanting, I loved the Guru Gita and even the sour cereal! Let’s talk about your relationship with Swamiji. How did you meet him and get to know him? I was fortunate enough to be in Ganeshpuri when Swamiji became a Swami in 1977. The next year he became the director of the Los Angeles Ashram. I had meanwhile moved to LA. I was drawn to his humour and sense of fun, and, of course, his deep commitment to the Work. I wound up living in that ashram for awhile and he later went to the Melbourne Ashram. In 1986, Swamiji and Ma Devi returned to LA and for the next five years I was privileged to be part of his work and his Satsang. Then in 1991 a group of very smart Australians came to LA and stole him! Then a few years later he and Devi stole me and here I am, too! I have great love for both Swamiji and Devi. Tell us about the Adelaide Shiva Yoga Meditation Centre. First of all, it’s important to recognise the great energy that Ma Jan has put into helping me create this Centre. We started with the intention of making a space that was entirely dedicated to this Work. We have been delighted in the wonderful people who join us at our Saturday Satsangs as well as the other programs during the week. Basically the courses are similar to those in Mt Eliza. We also have meditation, study groups and self-inquiry. By self-inquiry, do you mean Shiva Process? Both group and personal self-inquiry. We run a Shiva Process group but we also do a self-inquiry study group where we take a close look at Swamiji’s new book, Self-inquiry. I think Swamiji’s work on self-inquiry is spot-on. As you know, when you spend time with Swamiji at the ashram, he emphasises constant self-inquiry, total vigilance of what is happening in your mind at every moment. This is the warrior’s method. To challenge yourself and to challenge your mind. It is imminently valuable and I admire everyone who takes up the challenge. What is the role of Guru for you? The truth is, this is a Shakti tradition. It is passed from teacher to student, from generation to generation. It is a mystical tradition, very mysterious yet also straight-forward and clear. Swamiji as a Guru, like Baba before him, has cultivated the Shakti within himself to be able to offer others the experience of their own spirituality. The Guru opens the opportunity to experience grace, and allows us to grow spiritually. Is their one teaching that has resonated most for you? Only one? First I think of all the great beings, all the great teachings. Then I have to acknowledge the hundreds of tips and techniques and meditations that Swamiji offers. But as they all say, truth never changes. Within the wide band of spiritual practices, there’s a promise that floats in the air—enlightenment or self-realisation, whatever you want to call it. But the work actually happens in this moment. All the methods, all the inquiry, all the teachings of the great beings only highlight this moment. And in this moment, absolute freedom is available now.


	Interview with Maria Lazzaro

Isobel interviewed Maria Lazzaro in April 2008, shortly before the opening of the 'city centre' in East Brighton. Maria, and her partner Alan, have run a Shiva Yoga centre in their home for many years were Shiva Process groups and Learn to Meditate classes are held , along with monthly Satsangs that Swamiji leads. Isobel: When did you begin to meditate? Maria: I did a Learn to Meditate course with Swamiji ten years ago, and that was the first conscious form of meditation that I had done. But, when I think back on it, there were a lot of things that I did that were like meditation. Such as? Sometimes when I listened to music I would go into a very deep part of myself. I think that is a really common thing that people do. There would be other times when I would like to sit quietly. I remember the feeling that would give me, and that was like another meditation. So you found it quite natural when you did the formal meditation course with Swamiji? Yes I did. I didn’t know what was happening at the time, but I had an experience within the first couple of minutes. I felt a ‘quickening’ in my spine. As I had been a dancer, I had experienced all sorts of strange feelings in my body – I knew my body really well. But, being in that environment with Swamiji, I knew that this was not a normal physical feeling, and I became aware of a much more ‘in tune’ state of awareness: an alertness, a presence. Why did you begin to meditate? My son kept on buying me Learn to Meditate vouchers for Mothers Day and birthdays! Your son (Utpal) had already started his spiritual practice with Swamiji? Yes. But, actually the truth is that from the moment I met Swamiji I knew that there was much more to know. So how do you think you have changed? In one sense, I don’t think I have changed. I think I am who I have always been. But on another level there has been enormous change. One of the biggest things Swamiji has taught me – and all of us – is to learn the difference between intuition and a tearing thought. I have learnt to understand my ‘mind chatter’. I have learnt to find a way of communicating with myself. I didn’t have that before meditation. I was like everybody else – in that confused state. “Is this thought real, is this thought true? What is this feeling?” Did I even ask “What is this feeling? No! I just had feelings. So you learnt to distinguish what Swamiji calls the ‘voice of the Self”? I learnt what the voice of the Self sounds like. And, I learnt to ask, “Why do I feel like this?”, and have a mechanism that can give me an answer. Do you have any favourite meditation practices of techniques that you have learnt over the years to bring you back to the Self when you are bent out of shape? I do several things. If the feeling is really bad just the simple act of saying, “Why do I feel this way?” instantly calms me. That always helps me to begin to separate myself from the feeling and to observe it. Once I can do that I can slip into an inquiry. If I am in a negative state but it is also accompanied by a lot of ‘vital’ activity then it is a bit harder to stop myself. I just have to accept myself and wait until the state has passed and then I can meditate. All I need to do to meditate now, is to just want to. Of course, it can be a challenge sometimes to ‘want to’! You have now been running a centre for many years where you hold Shiva Process groups, Learn to Meditate classes and you have a monthly Satsang which Swamiji leads. You have recently moved home, and are about to open a new centre in East Brighton in a weeks time. So tell me what it has been like to run a centre, and how did it come about? It started off with me basically holding Shiva Process groups in town. I offered my house as a place to run groups. At that stage my family was still alive and I had three houses, side-by-side. My mother and her sisters were in the other two houses that were attached. I spontaneously said you can do it here, and it grew from that. Once that started to happen, my whole family became transformed – they absorbed it through the walls basically! Tell me, what are your aspirations for this new beautiful centre? I would really like to see the city aspect of Swamiji’s work grow. I really wanted to find a way of initiating that and bringing it into the future. I hope this is a place where all manner of things can happen; all manner of courses can take place; functions can happen; people can meet. I would love it to be a place of discussion and self inquiry and meditation. The Shakti (spiritual energy) brought us here – there was so much grace in every aspect of finding this place. What is it like to have Satsang held in your house? The first time we held Satsang, I felt like all night long the house was buzzing. I know I am what Swamiji calls a ‘peculiar’ (an emotional type) but Alan (my partner) could feel it too, even Marilyn (our dog) could feel it! The Shakti is an alive and palpable thing, as soon as you invite it in – or even recognize the possibility of it. I hope I have Satsang for the rest of my life. Why would I not want that? Why would I not want everyone to feel it?



		Interview with Dr Patrick Mahaffey

	Dr Patrick Mahaffey is the Chair of Mythological Studies at the Pacific Graduate University, Santa Barbara. He met Swamiji in 1975 at the Ann Arbor ashram and reconnected with him again in 2005 at the Three Gurus program, Los Angeles. Isobel Crombie interviewed Patrick during the Great Beings Retreat at the Shiva Ashram in August, 2007. Isobel: Patrick when did you begin to meditate? Patrick: I started practicing in 1973 when I was a University student. And what drew you to it? Two things. One, I felt like I was searching rather intensely for answers to life. Secondly, I was taking a course in Hindu traditions as part of my Religions Major and a person in the class said that an English professor had been teaching a meditation course at his home and it piqued my curiosity. I turned up one evening and I started my practice. You met Swamiji about two years after that? Yes, I had read Baba Muktananda’s autobiography Play of Consciousness and one or two volumes called Satsang with Baba and I just happened to see an advertisement on the window of a store that there was an Intensive in Ann Arbor, Michigan that was only about 1 hour and a half from my home. I thought, “I’d like to go to that” and so I did. I attended two or three Intensives in the 1975-76 period. And what was your experience like at that time? The atmosphere of the ashram was very exciting, very exhilarating. The chanting was beautiful. The only thing that was a bit intimidating was that the Guru Gita was being chanted, and it was my first time and was way beyond my ability to chant! But the periods of meditation during the day and the experience of shaktipat (the awakening of the meditative energy) was lovely. I am wondering if you have any comments about the similarities or differences between the Ann Arbor ashram (where you first met Swamiji in 1975) and the Shiva ashram? There are similarities and the one of them is the ‘home’ environment of the Shiva and Ann Arbor ashrams – the feel is quite intimate in both locations. Swamiji’s energy and manner of communicating is also quite strikingly similar to how he was in 1975. The essence is the same, he is the same person. He was much younger of course, but his manner and style, his charisma too is very much the same. You lead a busy life as a university professor and a writer. I wonder if you could share something of how you have used meditation in your professional life? I have long felt that the fruit of meditation shows up not so much in meditation as in your life generally - in your relationships and your work. I feel that when I meditate I am able to do things more skillfully than would otherwise be the case if I hadn’t touched in with a deeper part of myself before going to work. That has been my regular experience for a long time, particularly the last decade. Meditation grounds me and it helps me come from a different space than would otherwise be the case. Closely related to being more grounded is the attitude I bring to whatever it is I am doing. I strive to do my personal best but then I release the results, which is the essence of karma yoga. I think this is something that is much easier for me to practice if it arises out of a space of having meditated. Both prior to meditating and when I finish meditation I form some intentions about how I want to be in the world. Do you have a favourite tip or technique for when you feel really bent out of shape and have to apply ‘emergency relief’? Well, the best emergency medicine is the mantra. I love the mantra. I mingle it with the breath. Over the long haul that has been my practice. But it has shifted in the last couple of years since I first came to the Summer Retreat in 2006. The difference now is that it is relatively easy for my mind to quiet down and what I have been working on is refining the quality of my attention and not spacing out. The latest leading edge for me is that when the mind is quiet and alert I like to drop ‘G’ statements into the pool of my awareness and just let them do their work. These are sublime scriptural statements SSS calls ‘G’ or God statements? Yes. Do you have a favourite one? I have several! I am the Self; I am Shiva; I am consciousness; I am the witness; I am that which is beyond the witness. And what is the impact of these statements? I feel that awareness becomes even more pristine and my experience of myself becomes more mysterious in a very good sense. I am experiencing what I am in the moment rather than what I think I am. What is the role of the Guru for you? Most generally there needs to be a bridge between your personality, the person you think you are and the deeper Self that you want to access and touch. For me, the Guru principle is that bridge: it is a universal principle and it is a principle that is innate to every human being. But in order to get in touch with it, it needs to be activated. For most people, and that would include myself, it means meeting a person who has walked the path and who has a capacity to awaken or quicken that sense or principle in yourself so that you can take refuge in it, so that you can rely on it. It is an element of grace that complements or augments your own initiative. Is there something Swamiji has said or that you have read in his teachings that have had a strong impact on you? I suppose it is the conviction that he conveys of his own experience that the Self is a pervading reality that is ever present but hidden. And that there are ways to remove the blocks that preclude us from accessing and vibrating with that core which is the essence of who we are. The technology of Shiva Process that Swamiji has developed, which aims to remove just those blocks you speak of, would be something that you enjoy doing? I would say that I think it is the most original and unique contribution that Swamiji is making to the lineage that he transmits. I find it especially exciting because of working in an Institute and approaching the field of religious studies and mythology from the standpoint of depth psychology, there is a beautiful resonance between yogic inquiry on the one hand and depth psychology on the other. I have one final question Patrick. I know you reconnected with Swamiji in 2005, at the first Three Gurus program, after thirty years. How did it feel reconnecting with him after so long and how has it impacted on your life? One main impact is the effect it has had on the devotional part of my being which is really quite important to me. In a related way it also makes spiritual life a more intimate experience, and it grounds it. The element of spiritual friendship in some way completes, in a total sense, what it means to be walking on the spiritual path. So what does devotion mean to you? It is a combination of feeling love and respect for a mentor and, in feeling that towards Swamiji, my heart becomes more open and loving. I do a certain kind of puja before I meditate and I think of Swamiji and basically install him in my entire body. What does he symbolize for you in that context? A quality of light and spiritual presence. Was that a feeling that you had when you first met him or did it happen on this second meeting, all this time later? Oh, it was the second meeting. Did how you feel surprise you? Yes. It surprised me, and shocked me, and delighted me!


	Interview with Michael Wing

Michael (Rishi) Wing is a well known psychic and healer who lives and works in Brisbane. He runs the Shiva Yoga centre in Enoggera, Brisbane.

Isobel Crombie interviewed him during the ‘Great Beings’ retreat at the Shiva Ashram, in August 2007.

Isobel: When did you start to meditate Michael?

Michael: In about 1994 the urge to learn to meditate and get in contact with something else welled up inside of me and started a search within me.

Had you been interested in spirituality before that?

Ever since I was a child - and I didn’t listen to it. I can remember being a teenager and a voice in my head saying, “Meditate, meditate”, and I didn’t! I went the other way. Then in 2002 I saw the book Kundalini: The secret of life by Baba Muktananda and I took it home and read it in two hours. At the end of the book I thought, “This is what I want. This is for me.” And I said to God, “Sort it out God. I want this!” Within nine months I picked up the Australian Yoga Journal and saw Swamiji’s photograph and the emotion that went through me, it felt like I had come home. I just knew he was the one. I had received mantra initiation before that, in 1995, from the head of ‘Yoga in Daily Life’. That definitively helped, but I could never surrender until I met Swami Shankarananda and I knew he was my teacher.

And soon after you came down here?

I took my first Intensive in January 2003. It was the year of the first Three Gurus program and I flew down four times from Brisbane. The next year, I came down three times for the second Three Gurus program. In 2007 I came down for the whole summer Retreat and I just fell in love, more so. I want to be here now as often as I can.

What is it about Retreats that you particularly like?

I like to meet new people, which is strange because I am shy! But I feel I learn more in this context. I challenge myself and go out of my comfort zone. I believe there is a lot of growth through that.

It is interesting that you say that you are a shy person, because now you are a Centre leader! How did that come about?

In 2005, just before I went to the United States I did a private with Swamiji. As I was leaving he hugged me and said, “I want to put you to work”. I looked at him and said, “Well, I would be honoured”, but I then worried about it and thought, “What does he mean by that?” In 2006 he sat me down and said, “I want you to start teaching meditation and doing a group in Brisbane”. He gave me the format of a study group and it evolved from there.

Was it a challenge at first?

Initially it was, but it also felt that it was what I was born to do. I felt so much energy and enthusiasm for it. It put me out of my comfort zone at first, but that was OK because I really believe that for me to evolve I need to confront my fears. I always wanted to be behind the scenes but Swamiji brought another potential out in me. Ever since I received Shaktipat I feel I have a potential that I need to fulfill: I can’t not do it now. It feels like the kundalini energy is purifying and helping me to have the experiences that I need to evolve. It is the same thing with the travel that I do. In 1994 it welled up in me that I had to travel to the United States – it was a totally unexpected impulse, never did I imagine that I would go there. But I went and met three different yogis (Master Charles, Sri Anandima, Swami Shankaracharya) and I came back a different person. Being in enlightened energy transforms you.

I am getting from this that the role of the Guru is an important one for this. What does having a Guru means to you?

I see Swamiji as being like a friend, a teacher and, at times, a father. I am like a child near him. On some level it may fulfill something that I missed out on with my own father. I have always wanted to know myself and he is the vehicle to do that. I believe I was guided to him. I can tell him everything and he knows me, and knows what I need.

What does the concept of ‘surrender’ mean to you?

I used to think that it was a giving up of my power, but now I see that Swamiji shows me how I can take back my power – my true power, my spiritual source. Teachers teach children the ABC’s and, if you want to become enlightened or know the true Self, you need a teacher who is enlightened.

Michael, I understand that you are a psychic – so I wonder how meditation has helped you professionally?

It has most definitely helped. I am no longer as affected by the energies of others so much – my own energy stays consistent. In the past I would have been knocked around when I did my readings. I find that the energy of Swamiji and the lineage comes through in the readings I do. You can feel people lifted up by the energy. Quite often Swamiji comes up and I tell them about him.

Do you use Shiva Process?

The Shiva Process has started to manifest in the healings. I get them to focus on particular chakras. It is amazing! Intuitively it has come through this way and the results have been profound.

What is your favourite practice?

I love the mantra, but I will also do self inquiry as well, the ‘A’ statements really help. If I wake up tomorrow morning and I feel sad I will say “I feel sad”. I don’t necessarily try to ‘dig it out’ but I will identify it and repeat the mantra to wash through the feeling. If it gets intense then I will sit down and process myself.

Do you repeat the mantra into the feeling?

Into the feeling and especially into my head. It takes the bad attention away when you focus on the head instead of the feeling. Focusing on “I feel terrible” puts more energy into that emotion. So, I just do the mantra instead.

Is there anything that Swamiji has said to you that has really stuck with you?

Every time I see him I go away with something. The first time I came here in 2003, it was “The meditation you are having today, is the meditation you are having today”. Until then I judged every meditation that I had – I always wanted the best meditation. Now, it has taken that pressure off, and once that pressure is gone my meditations are so much better. What I have taken away too is that Swamiji accepts everyone for who they are, where they are, and where they are going. What I have learnt is to accept everyone, because they all have their own story.




	Interview with Patricia ní Ivor

Patricia ní Ivor is a senior public servant, currently on 12 months leave.

She spoke with Isobel in the Shiva ashram gardens in April this year.

Isobel: When did you begin to meditate?

Patricia: I started in the 1960’s in Sydney. I began to learn hatha yoga when it was first being introduced into the West. I can’t remember the name of the Australian couple from whom I learned, but they taught hatha yoga from a spiritual perspective, not merely as physical exercise. I was hooked. I already had a tradition within Catholicism of contemplation and had studied theology while a student at Queensland University and afterwards, in Hobart, with a religious congregation. At University, part of the radical student movement centred on the University’s Newman Society and coincided with the structural and other fundamental reforms in the Catholic Church coming from Vatican Council II. It was an exciting time, all around, and the beginnings of the social movements of the 60s and 70s.

How did you find the Eastern path allied with your Catholic beliefs?

I was a child of the 60s so using Eastern techniques was just part of the exploration of change in Western culture. It was another path. Of course, hatha yoga wasn’t all that alien to people in the West who were used to physical exercises, but I loved the combination of slow moving exercise with contemplation.

So to fast forward from the 1960s…did you continue to meditate?

On an off. I got busy. I came back to a spiritual life twenty years later (every twenty years I seem to immerse myself in a spiritual community). In the late 1980’s I got involved with a spiritual fellowship. It was pretty free-wheeling and fascinating and I learned many techniques for peace of mind and living well. By the early 2000s, I was still sitting near the top of the corporate tree, tired, bad tempered, burning out and getting stress related illnesses. So I took up hatha yoga again, seriously, and quite easily realised that I should get back into meditation. I knew that I needed time out and had been searching for the kind of long retreat that I had known as a Catholic. A thirty day retreat, alone and silent seemed like some kind of luxury. I didn’t have any contacts that I was confident of, so I trawled the internet, but couldn’t find anywhere that I felt I could go.

One bad Christmas break, I was cleaning up at work with a great deal of energy, when one of my best staff members did a bunk and took a week’s holiday. I was a bit irritated with her, and when she came back to work I asked her how her break was. She said she hadn’t been on holiday, she had been on retreat. I remember almost leaping over my desk, demanding to know where she had been and what it was like. She had been here to the Shiva Ashram to the Summer Retreat and she gave me a copy of Happy for No Good Reason and a web address. I spent the next 3 years ‘casing the joint’ going to Satsangs, Intensives and two Learn to Meditate courses. Over time, I became convinced that the Ashram was a place of wisdom and goodness and also that I would never tire of Swamiji’s teaching along with his cleverness, grace and wit. I took time off for the Autumn retreat and again was captivated – in bliss that I was able to sit in these beautiful gardens and have time to read and contemplate. I was always confident that it was going to work for me, that it would have benefits. I never had a blockage like, “I am sitting here wasting time”; I was always confident of its benefits.

Can you say how you feel different as a result of meditation?

I think the benefits come from giving time to yourself, to considering and to developing your inner life so that there is a connection with the rest of your life. I have always known that time out was really beneficial to how you live the rest of your life.

Can you say more directly?

The thing that I notice about myself is that I behave differently. I am better behaved – I am more gracious and a nicer person. I notice myself behaving in a certain way and I am surprised. It is not as though I am putting effort into it. I am just more considerate and respectful of others. I have more time for people.

Are there specific ways you can use what you have found here in your professional life?

I continue to take time out to reflect and work out what my part is in situations. I don’t play the blame game.

Do you have a favourite practice that you use?

Early morning meditation with a group of people is probably my favourite part of the day. It is enormously peaceful for me and sets up the rest of the day. At the end of the day, I start to wind down from work with a session of hatha yoga and then move into meditation. If I try to move into meditation straight way it is a waste of time. I am too ‘busy’. If my mind is still too busy I use one of Swamiji’s CDs, especially his chakra meditation, because that works to settle the busy mind.

Do you use mantra at all?

I use the mantra a lot, all day, all the time. It is something I have learned here and it has really surprised me how effective it is.

Can you think of a time where you have used it and it has transformed a situation?

I remember Swamiji teaching it and he said, “Now, say the mantra and watch how you feel.” And I watched how I instantaneously relaxed and felt more peaceful after only two or three repetitions. In stressful times, when I would toss and turn in bed mulling over various matters, I would go to sleep saying the mantra. I have to say that that has completely replaced all thoughts. I don’t dream mantra, but I do go to sleep saying the mantra and I wake up saying the mantra. I also say the mantra when I am driving or walking.

Is there something that Swamiji has said to you that really has stuck in your mind?

After I had been living in the Ashram for about a month I went to see Swamiji and said, “I better get serious about this, what should I do?” He said, “Don’t do anything. Do nothing!” I laughed and said, “It must be ingrained guilt that makes me want to do”. And he said, “You don’t have to do anything. Just live here and change will occur. That is all you have to do”.

Was it good advice?

Absolutely. And it is quite hard for me to do – that is, to not do anything!

How long have you been living here, Patricia?

About five months, about half the time. It’s a long Retreat!




		Interview with Kaarin Fairfax

	Kaarin Fairfax is a well-known theatre director, actor and singer. She is also Mum to two children: Memphis and Maddie. Isobel spoke with Kaarin during the January Summer Retreat at the Shiva ashram about her sadhana (spiritual practice). Isobel: Kaarin, when did you being to meditate? Kaarin: I began to meditate seven years ago. I did a Learn to Meditate course with Swamiji in Brighton. I was doing a different form of meditation prior to that but when I met Swamiji and did that course I loved the way he taught. I loved him as a teacher and his sense of humour. I thought, I am going to follow this and see where it gets me. Over seven years later I am still doing it. Why did you start? I was going through a very difficult period in my life, it was a time when I didn’t like my self very much. I knew that there was an inner world, but I wasn’t sure what to do with it. I really knew that I needed something more. My life was difficult, my marriage was rocky and I didn’t know who I was anymore. I saw a poster in a shop - it was an article with Swamiji and Garry McDonald. I had worked with Garry and I saw this and thought I need to go and do that. It was like someone had ticked the box and said: ‘Go and do that’. How do you feel you have changed as a result? I have changed so much. I was contemplating it this morning and I was thinking about myself seven years ago and, I know you grow up, but I really feel like the way I have grown into my age has changed. I like who I am now. I like how I relate to people. I still occasionally feel self-conscious when I speak with people but I am much better socially. I know more about myself. I know that there are certain situations I handle better than others and so I can steady myself before I go in whereas before I might go in and get knocked off my perch. I can usually handle the situation with the knowledge that maybe I need to take care of myself more in certain situations. How do you find yoga has changed your life professionally? I always find it fascinating to hear how people use yoga in the world. I was always very intuitive in my work and certainly I feel like I have now expanded that into my life. Life and work do not seem so separate. When I go into the world I work from a yogic perspective - before I would just work from an intuitive perspective. Now I have a greater understanding of the use of the creative energy. And I feel that the shakti (spiritual energy) that we talk about here is what is ‘creating’ in that world. If I am directing a play I always follow the ‘upward shift’ and that has become such a good guide – it is just brilliant. There is always good feeling and I get good results. Sometimes there are blocks that you have to work your way around. Plus, in my profession as a director I have done productions where I have taught actors Self Inquiry (Shiva Process) and they come up to me before shows and say: ‘Can we make a statement before we go on?’. They love it! Actors love the inner world and self inquiry teaches them how to explore the inner world more fully. What is your favourite meditation technique or practice? Mine swaps around quite a bit. It changes to what I need in any moment. I love to say the mantra. I love to focus on Bhagawan Nityanda. One of my early meditation experiences was him saying ‘Follow me. Think of me when you meditate’. So, I focus on him. I have a very active mind and it does like to think a lot. I remember going to Swamiji and saying, ‘My mind is never quiet!’ and he said ‘Don’t worry, you have a busy life.’ What I realized was that even if I sit to meditate and my mind is ratting though and sorting out my junk I am much calmer at the end of it. So even a meditation on my daily needs or activities or thinking something through or planning or working, if I can do that in a quiet meditative state it works for me because I am much more peaceful and calmer and in control. In a way it gives me the opportunity to stop and work out things in my life rather than just fly into these things without giving any thought to it. Anything else you would like to share? I love the whole process so much. I feel so lucky. I think it is the best kept secret around. And Swamiji is just a brilliant teacher. I feel so very grateful: I couldn’t have brought my kids up without this, I wouldn’t have known what to do. I feel blessed that they can use the Shiva Process on themselves and their friends. They are going to grow up knowing about Shiva Yoga and meditation. And I am a better Mum. I came here because I wanted to be a better Mum. I feel that following the teachings of Swamiji and Kashmir Shaivism gives me a check-in point when I am parenting my kids. Before it felt like some random guess work and the matrika that was going on in my head was, ‘They are going to have to go to therapy for that!’ Now I have let myself off the hook. In some ways yoga takes the responsibility of making all the right decisions off yourself and it feels like you are working and parenting from a higher position: a position of God. The feedback that I get about my kids tells me that it is working and this is brilliant.