Yoganand Michael Carroll - a must listen for yoga history + philosophy!

The intelligent edge yoga podcast was produced by Kathryn Anne Flynn; author of Teach Kind, Clear Yoga: A Guide for Practitioners and Teachers. To learn more about Kathryn, practice online, or find retreats and training opportunities, visit kathrynanneflynn.comShow Notes:Maybe one of the most experienced yogis to ever grace this podcast in past or future, Yoganand Michael Carroll is a treasure trove of amazing stories and yoga philosophy. A must listen for anyone interested in the history of yoga and its philosophy!How he had an appetite for spirituality that was not sated by his strict fundamentalist Christian family, but found a spiritual path at Kripalu when it was still an ashramYoganand was at the ashram when Amrit Desai, Kripalu’s founder, was asked to leave when it was revealed that he was having extra-marital affairs with students (who were all supposed to be practicing celibacy)What yoga has lost by going mainstream, but what it’s gained, too, given the guru culture of India and early-American yogaFinding a clear path toward balance, and how our understanding of spirituality and psychology are nuancedPracticing the Shat Kriya (six rites/cleansing rituals), and confrontational practices like dhauti (cloth swallowing) from the Hatha Yoga PradipikaWhat excites and interests Yoganand about the Pradipika and scholarship on Hatha Yoga’s arrival in the 10th century, contextualized to the Sutras and GitaThe variety of definitions of yoga in the Bhagavad Gita and how Krishna was using them to help prepare ArjunaHow yoga student/teacher guidance used to work before texts were widely availableHow texts used to be written in purposefully obscured languageCan Kundalini energy be raised with ease or is it only for the enlightened?The limitations of the rational mind to understand metaphor for conveying spiritual conceptsHow we stress the body just the right amount to get stronger, and how in the Hatha Yoga Pradipika there’s energetic and physical recommendations of stress to apply for growthChakras have changed, and how they weren’t coloured or associated to musical notes, etc in history, and how you don’t have chakras – you create themWe conclude with the consolation that there has never been a time where there was a universally agreed upon definition of yoga