by Joseph Roberts, Senior Editor

The search for the cover image to represent yoga was a long path.

As the implications of the feature articles began to reveal themselves to us, the focus of the cover began to change as well. Originally, we had decided upon a beautiful person in a yoga pose. However, as we progressed, it became apparent that yoga has shifted from its ancient roots since it migrated from South Asia to North America. Some call this the "dumbing down" of yoga in order to create consumable products or to appeal to broader markets -— from celebrity yoga of the stars, to "yogacise" for a beautiful body.

We didn’t want the cover to be just another pretty asana.

On a positive note, the popularization of yoga has introduced many to start practicing yoga. Yoga clothing, video, teas, workshops, magazines and accessories sales are booming. After initial encounters with the physical forms of yoga, students may then wish to go deeper. This yoga edition provides numerous articles explaining the history and spiritual dimensions of these sometimes "lost teachings."

Last Sunday, after meditating at a Satsang (Sat – truth, Sang – being together), I reviewed the literature table. There were these compelling photo images that someone had the loving devotion to cut out from an old calendar. The eyes on one picture shot out from the windows of the soul. Underneath the caption read, "God is controlling all of creation," Param Sant Kirpal Singh Ji Maharaj. There was our yoga cover.

There are many more heroes who have contributed so much to nurturing yoga here in B.C., yet we neither had the time nor space to fit them into this month’s magazine. We invite them to contact us with their stories and continue the yoga dialogues in future issues.

Here is a short list of those who have contributed personally to my appreciation of yoga:

A special thanks to Lila Osterman for her commitment to true yoga. Thanks to Swami Satchidanada, who in 1969 taught me to chant Om Shanti for world peace while I was in Washington, D.C., protesting the Vietnam War.

Yogi Bhajan, a rather large man who walked on my back as a form of ancient Vedic massage, introduced me to Kundalini Yoga. Thanks to the local 3HO folks here at Yoga West who have just moved to their new location at 2662 West 4th Ave.

Kolin’s Banyen Books, that cauldron of knowledge where one can find countless volumes on all the esoteric teaching including yoga, and has also put down beautiful new roots at 3608 West 4th Ave.

Thanks goes to some forgotten yogi in Nelson, B.C. who taught the Salutation to the Sun sequence. When I asked the question, "How long should I hold each position," he said, "Hold it till you feel your body smile, then when you feel like it, gently move to the next."

Thank you Sandra Sammartino for her 30 years of service and the Yoga Outreach Program which now takes yoga into prisons. Lalita Lane for holding a clear beautiful space to show how to breathe peace and bliss into our world.

The Salt Spring Centre for its organic yoga retreats and Baba Hari Das for grounding the joy of silence in our hearts. Cindy Walters, editor of Yoga Association of B.C. Directory, for helping spread the word. James Fairbanks, Lilian Provencal, Monte Tilden — some of the kind-hearted souls and teachers that make this path such a delight.

Yogis from different traditions are coming to Vancouver in mid-March. Articles representing their paths appear in this issue of Common Ground. Dr. Mansukh Patel and Louise Rowan of the Life Foundation teach Dru Yoga, techniques that they have used for personal joy, health and detraumatisation in war zones. You can meet a north Indian yogi, Paramhans Swami Maheshwarananda, at the Yoga in Daily Life Center in Kitsilano and discuss the highest goal of human life, self-realization.

And gratitude to my dear brother David Roberts who introduced me to meditation, vegetarian diet, and Paramahansa Yogananda’s Autobiography of a Yogi, the first book I read on the subject. David taught by example and encouraged me to go deeper into my spiritual life. To him especially I dedicate this cover.

March 27th was David’s birthday, after a life of service he passed on last July 8th. The person on the front cover was very dear to him. It is the man who initiated him into the wonders of the beyond. David told me that after his life-long search for a pure path and a true teacher, Sant Kirpal Singh was the first sane person he had ever met. Their meeting changed his life. This issue is a birthday gift to both David, and, Praram Sant Kirpal Singh on the 100th anniversary of his birth.

And to friends of yoga everywhere. Thank you.

"Both the beginning and the end our lives start in love."

World Peace Needs You

My grade 11 English teacher Mrs. Errington introduced me to poetry. For the first time I stepped out of my suburban culture and into the luminous world of Lawrence Ferlinghetti’s beat poetry A Coney Island of the Mind.

That was 1966.

Newspaper headlines then read: "U.S. admits hitting civilians in Vietnam," "U.S. independent offensive kept secret from South Vietnamese army," "U.S. says France not vital to Nato," "Lost H-Bomb fallen from a B-52 bomber found off the coast of Spain," "Henry Ford knocks auto safety critics," "Auto critic Nader gets apology from G.M.," "Sniper at University of Texas slays 12," and "Opposition to Vietnam War keeps growing."

Our high school graduating class’s annual recorded Como Lake’s valedictorian Gordon Wickerson’s speech, "We are asked, not to make the world safe for democracy, but to fight a new and confusing war to make the world safe for peace".

Now it is 2003.

War is still confusing and we still want peace. Just recently, millions protested worldwide against a U.S.-planned invasion of Iraq. Common Ground has received a torrent of emails, faxes and articles expressing this profound desire for peace.

37 years after my first revelation with poetry, Kolin emailed me an anti-war poem titled Speak Out. It was Lawrence Ferlinghetti’s new poem (see page 7).

Mass opposition to this new war is growing even before it "officially" starts, where as the protest to the U.S./Vietnam War did not gather momentum until after the war had been on for years.

In the 60s, we were led to believe in the threat of Communism — today, the military industrial media tells us there is a terrorist lurking behind every bush. The word terror comes from the Latin terror meaning ‘fear’; to be terrified is etymologically to ‘shake with fear’.

Unless we are centred within ourselves it is difficult to stay calm, unshaken, and to know truth from illusion. This is why our personal inner peace work compliments the outer peace movement.

We need to get over the old criticism where the anti-war activists disdained the meditators for doing nothing, while the meditators saw the angry protestors lacking awareness and just perpetuating hatred. There is much to learn from both camps.

For the dove of peace is to fly it needs both wings.

The meditators and demonstrators, by learning mutual respect, will combine to create a vital community fully capable of peace, justice and happiness.

We have role models that have gone before, like Mahatma Gandhi or Martin Luther King, that united spirit with activism, and we have those living amongst us now.

Let us live and learn the yoga of peace.




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