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Ashtanga. By the end of the 80s I was teaching all three in London.
I was invited to Mysore by Pattabhi Jois, who popularised Ashtanga.
He just said come so I packed my bag.
But my father wanted me to meet Clara Buck, an amazing yoga
teacher who was best friends with Vanda Scaravelli, a legendary
teacher who emphasised freedom and following one’s inner teacher.
Meeting Clara literally blew my mind. “You didn’t come here to be a
yogi,” she told me. “You came here to be a human being.”
I didn’t go to Mysore to meet Pattabhi. I stayed and learned from
Clara. Today I teach a combination of what I learned from her, Osho
and Krishnamurti.
What about the humanitarian side of things?
Although I was a yoga teacher, it was hard to make a living teaching
yoga back then. I went to work for a radio station in Belgrade, Serbia
as a DJ and journalist before the Yugoslav Wars started in 1990.
After the war started, I went around the world interviewing people
like Mother Theresa, the Dalai Lama and soul singer James Brown
for the radio station, asking them to help stop the war.
Talking to Mother Theresa in Calcutta, in air you couldn’t breathe,
I realised that her payoff for what she was doing was extreme joy. I’m
talking about the joy of making a difference, in helping other people.
I took that realisation away with me.
Back in Yugoslavia, my passport was stolen and I went on the run.
I survived by teaching yoga to soldiers. When I finally got back to the
West, I found out that people were dodging stress instead of bullets.
They were searching for the meaning of life through dynamics like
yoga and meditation. In Yugoslavia, no-one knew how much time
they had. That day might be their last. They were going to celebrate
it. I learned from that.
Once you understand that celebrating life comes from within, you
realise you’re on an exploration and it’s about preparing to leave this
world. Yoga is teaching you to enjoy your life as much as possible
while preparing you for infinity.“I teach people to become yogis not
yoga teachers. There are enough of
those on the planet. I tell them to love
themselves. And if they can’t do that,
to love someone else.”