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My way to Kriya Yoga
I started practicing Yoga around 2001. For some years I attended a weekly Hatha Yoga class. During that time – besides becoming quite flexible – I had some interesting experiences. One of them I want to share here:
When my teacher Daniela Riedel one evening started chanting the holy Gayatri Mantra very beautifully I had a deep feeling of "being-at-home". This mantra obviously reminded me of something. Today I am convinced that I heard this matra in former incarnations and hearing it again, brought memories of those past lives to the surface. I will always be grateful for what my Daniela taught me during that years. She was always full of love and gave a lot of it to her students.
Looking back, my lifestyle (at least certain aspects of it) beginning from an early age reflected that of a yogi. E.g. I stopped eating meat at the age of 18 and became a vegan (also out of ethical considerations) in 2004. For me being vegan always meant to do my best not to harm other beings by my lifestyle. This could also be interpreted as one part of Ahimsa.
I always took care of my health and tried to keep my body (the temple of the soul) strong, healthy and clean.
Also in 2004 I read the "Autobiography of a Yogi" and was fascinated by Yoganandas words. The book touched me deeply although I did not why at that time. I sincerely considered to start practicing Kriya Yoga as taught by the SRF but for some reason did not do it. The idea and wish somehow just "vanished".
My lifestyle was charactarized by physical exercise, veganism and later rawfood. I cleansed my body by eating raw food mainly for quite a long while without having an idea of what “sattvic” means (sidenote: at the end an ayurvedic massage therapist told me about my sattvic lifestyle and that this usually is fitting for individuals who are focusing on developing spiritually).
The interest in rawfood led me to the concept of natural hygiene. I wanted to professionalize my knowledge to help others and found a distance learning academie where one can study natural hygiene in Germany. The fee for the course was a few thousand bucks. When I called the academy to enroll for the course, the reaction surprised me very much: Dierk Hüllenhagen (Thank you, Dierk!), who is the head of the academy, told me that this course is not the right thing for me to to and told me to read the book "The Biology of Belief" by Bruce Lipton instead. After reading the book I attended two workshops with Klaus Medicus and became a Psych-K®-Advisor. Psych-K® is a method to change subconcious believes and thereby become the person you want to be. It is based on the ideas of Bruce Lipton. I changed some subconcious beliefs I carried along for years and afterwards many things and decisions became easy...
In early 2009 – after 8 years of personal Yoga practice – I started a teacher training course at the Patañjali-Yoga School of Lars Rimböck. One may say I found Lars by chance. For sure it is at least an interesting sidenote that Lars did not plan to accept any students in 2009 but after I contacted him changed his mind and started the class. Lars is a long-time diciple of Sri. S. Rajagopalan and I had the chance to attend a seminar of Sri. S. Rajagopalan in april 2009. Their "Yoga-style" (if I may call it a style) is characterized by very slow and intense movements which are always combined with the flow of breath and concentration on the body part which is moving. Praticing that way, the mind is able to stop thinking. Being in the "Here and Now" of doing the asanas prepares you in an optimal way for Kriya Yoga.
Shortly after I had begun the course at Lars' school he felt the urge to start practicing Kriya Yoga. Lars "accidently" stumbled over a article about GuruNath's 2009 workshop in Berlin and a few days later both of us were signed in to attend it.
When GuruNath entered the Gothic Hall on that hot summer day I immediately felt "at home".
I was on no search but I knew I had arrived where I was supposed to.
I did never search for a Guru yet he found me.
I had no expectations yet he fulfilled my dreams and gave me exactly what I was in need of.