Atmavikasa Testimonials & Reviews

30/01/2018

Venkatesh and Hema are a husband and wife team who run the Atmavikasa Centre of Yogic Sciences in Mysore. They describe their yoga as “Traditional Hatha Yoga with the inspiration of the perfe…

12/01/2018

A write up in GUARDIAN featuring Atmavikasa. Thanks Kapoor

Famed for ashtanga yoga, wellbeing is a way of life in this magical south Indian city – and fantastic markets, food and architecture all add to the allure

09/01/2018

I decided to enroll for the Prana Enhancement Intensive/Backbending Fusion at Atmavikasa Centre of Yogic Sciences under the guidance of Yogacharya Ventakesha and Acharye Hema in Mysore-India, after a tough,challenging year. I needed time and space to heal myself and come back to my practice in...

04/01/2018

A beautiful blog by our student Jeletzky

passion inspiring depth ~ each step is a preparation for the next

06/12/2017

Classical Hatha Yoga in Mysore, South India- A Top Yoga studio in Mysore, India for Yoga Therapy, Yogic lifestyle immersion, Yoga TTC and NO Yoga Alliance

11/07/2017

http://www.path2yoga.net/2017/03/interview-venkatesha-hatha-yoga-teacher-mysore.html?m=1

Interview with Yogacharya Venkatesha

Venkatesha is a self taught yoga master. He is one of the few teachers in Mysore who teaches classical hatha yoga. He teaches much more than just asanas.

23/02/2017

Study experience at Atmavikasa by Melanie 😊

This blog post embodies my work done at Amtavikasa centre of yogic sciences, Mysor, India.

What else except Asanas I’ve learnt at Atmavikasa

OM asato – ma
From Illusion

sad – gamaya
walk towards the truth

Tamso – ma
From darkness

jyotir – gamaya
walk towards light

Mrtyor – ma
From death

amratan – gamaya
walk towards immortality

Om Shanti Shanti Shanthi
Om peace for me, peace for you, peace for the whole universe

This is the opening chant we sing every early morning before starting the asana practising. This chant brings your mind and body in a state of awareness. The lyrics remember you why and for what you are doing the practise of yoga and it brings you back to the feelings you had the last time you were chanting.

There is a lot I’ve learnt during the Teacher Training at Atmavikasa. The first four weeks were packed with subject matter. For me the most important was to bring back to my mind why I practise Yoga.

Why I practise Yoga
I started practising Yoga 10 years ago. Sometimes I was more sometimes less committed to the practise. Sometimes very naive and brain washed by so many different teachers, that I was confused. Sometimes I could not stand any yoga talk anymore and was just interested in the physical achievements and in health. But I always knew – I do it for me and for discovering something deeper in me and in the greater whole.

The teachings at Atmavikasa are old school and authoritative. A lot of discipline is required. Usually you are holding the poses for a very long time. You think you can’t anymore because your body is hurting and shaking but that’s just your mind. When you are focused and you set the attention of taking control over your mind you can stand much longer as you think. Can you imagine – we held once Dvi Padasana (Plank) for 4.5 minutes. This is something what we also experience in life. We are afraid of many things. Always trying to take the simplest way (I’m very good at that) and are walking away. But there are some circumstances in life you can’t walk away. You have to face it and than what are you going to do? Pain is there – all the time. A beloved one dies, your relationship fails, you get the diagnosis of cancer, you don’t know how to pay the next rent…. There is so much pain in this world. Don’t try to avoid pain. Make friends with it and accept it. The only thing what you can do is to choose not to suffer but for this you need the control of your mind to get over the pain. Further in your practise, especially in Pranayama and Meditation, you get more consciousness and realise there is something else other than just feelings and emotions. You try to go beyond and you observe there is even more to discover. Through the medium of citta (mind) we are able to see the expression of Ishwara (the infinite, the source). This state is called Samadhi. Total bliss. But because of our restless mind, our fluctuations and all the distractions it is so difficult to go there.

Yoga is the best tool for controlling and binding the mind. And with Yoga I mean all aspects of Yoga: Pranayama, Meditation, Asana practise and studying the wisdom of the great old teachers. That’s why I’m practising Yoga.

I’d like to say thank you to Acharya Venkatesha and Acharye Hemamalini Gm from Atmavikasa Center of Yogic Sciences for all the lessons in class and for life.




www.atmavikasayoga.in

13/10/2016

"Yoga works only as long as the intentions of the Teacher and the students are pure. I do not touch your body- I intend to touch your mind. Yoga should bloom within you like a flower..it cannot be forced from outside"
-Yogacharya Venkatesh

17/09/2016

There are many resources available for learning yoga in these modern times and many of them are very good, yet very few argue with the age old advice that a teacher, or guru, is by far the most powerful source.

If we appreciate and believe in this, it moves us towards the next decision point, there are so many teachers! Although that's probably a good thing, it can be no easy task to decide how to best use our limited time, (and money) so's not to take a 'wrong turn' on our respective journeys into yoga.

It's always a major bonus, when we have an opportunity to spend a bit of time learning with teachers who have taught yoga for more than a decade, so when Acharya Venkatesh & Hema visited our home country (Thailand), it was too good a chance to be missed.

Needless to say, neither my wife or I were disappointed. We both have reasonably mature asana practices and know enough to enjoy daily self-practice. However what made this 3 day intensive special for us though was the intensity and clarity in the teaching. From the start of the six sessions, through to the closing pranayama, it felt as if time stood still. Acharya Venkatesh skilfully, and safely, introduced us to just how much is going on in any one asana and connected us with our breath. We learned the incredible benefits that can be had by warming up appropriately (which is easy to overlook) and began to feel the hidden depths that are available to us in each of the fundamental asanas visited, when we surrender to their centuries of intelligence.

The icing on the cake for me, was one single postural correction that Hema spotted, and communicated to me. In subsequent weeks of practice, by changing one single movement, many asanas that I practice regularly have a new clarity. That takes real skill, and that's where the years of teaching, and the hundreds of bodies that they have both seen, supersede any book, YouTube video or inspiring selfie. This was real asana teaching and it's not available in every studio or Shala.

We (my wife and I) would both recommend spending some time studying under Acharya Venkatesh and Hema to anyone who is passionate about their practice, or has a growing interest. The more time you have, the more you will take benefit.

23/08/2016

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