Enlighten Up! A skeptic's journey into the world of yoga.

I heard about this film from a yogi buddy of mine. I have watched it twice in the last 12 hours.

 

Enlighten Up! | Official Movie Site

About:
Filmmaker Kate Churchill is determined to prove that yoga can transform anyone. Nick Rosen is skeptical but agrees to be her guinea pig. Kate immerses Nick in yoga, and follows him around the world as he examines the good, the bad and the ugly of yoga. The two encounter celebrity yogis, true believers, kooks and world-renowned gurus. Tensions run high as Nick’s transformational progress lags and Kate’s plan crumbles. What unfolds and what they discover is not what they expected.

Nick Rosen getting a new perspective in BKS Iyengar’s class in Pune, India

 

My Impression:

I'm in love, seriously, with my practice more than ever and with this whole idea, the whole skepticism of it all. Yoga means a lot of different things for a lot of different people, how do you know who to trust? What is right? What is right for yourself? Who has the time/money/motivation to go looking for it? How do we know we are supposed to look for it? Are we supposed to go looking for it? "18 million Americans now practice a Baskin Robbins variety of yoga" - this is so true and it is all so commercialized! How is one to decide which yoga, if any, is right for you? Who has the best advertisement, the sexiest yoga clothing, the one who chants the loudest.....? hmmmmm. This movie looks into so many different aspects of yoga from the physical practice to the spiritual, from "namaste to T&A", from "Godless" yogis to God loving yogis, how are we all connected and what does it all mean?

 

What I take out of it is that if it is works for you, go for it.... because there is no one right answer. If you are feeling it, you are doing it. Namaste.

My favourite conversation of the whole film... (and yes I did put this on, pause/play/type like crazy to get it all down)

Nick goes to visit the Guru Sharan Ananda aka Guru of the blissful refuge at his ashram outside of Gokul, India. At this point in the film, Nick is frustrated with the idea of yoga as a practice which seems to be greatly centred around getting closer to god. For Nick, a "Godless New Yorker", this is not accessible and he struggles a lot with the motivations/correct reasons for practicing...

Guru of Blissful Refuge - A man with a heart of gold and my favourite laugh!

Nick: I see yoga multi fold tool, physically, use to try to focus my mind a little bit. And I think that my goal is perhaps modest in terms of yoga. It is simply to be happy. What is your impression of how we practice yoga in the west?

Guru Sharan Ananda: I am not really acquainted with yoga in the west, but Asanas mostly used for physical strength, asana is more of the thoughts. More of the inside and very less outside. And what we are doing is 98% outside and maybe 2 or 3% or 1% inside.

So what then is the connection between bhakta yoga (devotional practice to god) and asana yoga? What is the connection between what I practice at home and this, not only worlds apart but almost separate philosophies, separate practices.

Good question, let me put it this way. You came to meet me you could have come by cycle, you could have come by car, you could have come by elephant, you could have come by foot. To reach here, there are so many directions. That depends on you, where you are at present. Because, let me say, you are the most important person under the sun. What is east? From where does east begin?  You are the centre point. From you, this is east. For me, east could be different. This place could be west for you, but for me it is east. So you are the most, or let me use my word, most-est important person under the sun.  What we say that it’s not important what you are doing, it’s important WHY you are doing.

What do you mean?

You can prepare your food for your just consuming, for someone you love, and prep someone for the Lord - so the action is physically the same, but inside it is different. If you are forced to do cooking for someone you do not like, then you will do it, you will cook, but you won’t enjoy it.

Same thing can be said for yoga?... Anything, absolutely anything under the sun! Everything depends on you, hangs on you. So you should feel the importance of yourself. You are the most important person for any decisions, all decisions, all the practices or any practice. And again you said how to attain happiness, yes, that’s important. Let me put a little stress on it, how much hard you are working there, is there any happiness there? You will have to question yourself, where is it? Where can we get that happiness? You said take what is right for you, take what feels right. I am a godless guys from New York City. It doesn’t make sense necessarily where I come from this bhakti yoga this embracing Krishna…

Then do not embrace, never do it. If you don’t like it, don’t do it. Go on practicing what you are doing. If you want to believe in god, believe. If you don’t want to believe, don’t believe. And still you could be a religious person.

And what would make you religious or spiritual? Be yourself. Be your true self.

It’s not so easy for me to just…, sometimes I do not trust myself, to say that “ok I’ll just find my true self. Are there specific practices that one can engage it to help… As much as possible try to get rid of what you are not and you are unnecessarily… wearing… on yourself. Try to get rid of this.

Happiness not outside, it is within us. See for instance, our sweet Kate is here. She is the same person, she’ll be the same person. Somebody will see her and he will simply jump and other man will not. Has she made any change?  It’s ourselves. Kate is a very lovely person, but not for all. It’s ourselves.

Me finding bliss at a bookstore, random happy moment. Yoga!

Be yourself, serve yourself to be the best "you" you can be, and pass it on. Namaste