Interview with Sharon Gannon by Lenka Knag for Spring Festival Magazine, Prague, Czech Republic January 2024
Q: You have had an amazing career as a yoga educator and innovator and are the reason many of us here today in Ostrava, Czechia are practicing yoga today. Now that you are retired from playing an active role, has your perspective changed recently?
SHARON RESPONDS: Hmm. Do you mean my perspective about Yoga? Or about teaching Yoga? Or my view of life? Although I am not quite sure as to what you are asking, I will try my best to respond, but if my answer is not to your liking, please let me know and I will try again. Here is my response:
I have been 100 % committed to the Jivamukti Yoga Method during all my years of practicing it, teaching it, as well as administrating the school. After so many decades I am very happy to be retired from public life and to step down from the role of creator, teacher, and administrator. I have been given a wonderful opportunity now to focus on immersing myself in sadhana (practice), here in the forest where I live. It feels like a very organic, natural process. It says in the Bible: To everything there is a season and a purpose. There are different stages in life that require us to rise to the occasion accordingly. In the ancient Indian system this is referred to as the four ashramas: brahmachayra (the student stage-focused on learning and study), grihastha (householder stage-being occupied with a career and/or raising a family), vanaprastha (the stage of the forest dweller-retiring from working in the world in order to deepen sadhana and focus on one’s relationship with God) and sunyasa (the stage of the renouncer). I am a forest dweller now and am very much enjoying my hermetic life.
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Q: You have had an amazing career as a yoga educator and innovator and are the reason many of us here today in Ostrava, Czechia are practicing yoga today. Now that you are retired from playing an active role, has your perspective changed recently?
SHARON RESPONDS: Hmm. Do you mean my perspective about Yoga? Or about teaching Yoga? Or my view of life? Although I am not quite sure as to what you are asking, I will try my best to respond, but if my answer is not to your liking, please let me know and I will try again. Here is my response:
I have been 100 % committed to the Jivamukti Yoga Method during all my years of practicing it, teaching it, as well as administrating the school. After so many decades I am very happy to be retired from public life and to step down from the role of creator, teacher, and administrator. I have been given a wonderful opportunity now to focus on immersing myself in sadhana (practice), here in the forest where I live. It feels like a very organic, natural process. It says in the Bible: To everything there is a season and a purpose. There are different stages in life that require us to rise to the occasion accordingly. In the ancient Indian system this is referred to as the four ashramas: brahmachayra (the student stage-focused on learning and study), grihastha (householder stage-being occupied with a career and/or raising a family), vanaprastha (the stage of the forest dweller-retiring from working in the world in order to deepen sadhana and focus on one’s relationship with God) and sunyasa (the stage of the renouncer). I am a forest dweller now and am very much enjoying my hermetic life.
Q: You have contributed so much. What are you most proud of?
SHARON RESPONDS: Truth be told I am wary of pride. I think that being prideful is not something to be proud of. It’s not a state of mind that leads to yoga. Perhaps I will answer this question by saying what I am most happy about:
I am happy that my life has been useful to others. That others have been interested and find some value to some of the insights and discoveries that I have been blessed to have experienced. That they have found application in their own life for what we have offered in the form of the philosophy and methodology pertaining to Jivamukti Yoga, which are found in the books and manuals I’ve written and have written with David Life, as well as in the experiences, we have all shared together as a community. That others feel those experiences and teachings have contributed in some way, to the awakening or to the remembering of happiness and peace in their own minds, hearts, and lives. That they feel empowered to be spiritual leaders themselves and to share with others their unique understanding of the method with those who are interested in listening and learning from them.
I feel tremendously honored to be a part of the Jivamukti Yoga community. I am in awe of the wise and wonderful teachers and students who have embraced this community as their own. Together we have resurrected the ancient practice of Yoga—revealing it to be much more than a mundane form of ‘get-fit’ exercises. We are all presenting it as what it was intended for: a path to enlightenment. It isn’t just me—we have all done that through emphasizing that enlightenment comes through loving devotion to God and compassion for all beings. We, as Jivamukti teachers teach about the power of intention and how a person’s intention determines the results of their actions. Jivamukti Yoga practitioners are radicals who have dared to question a global Culture that aims to encourage people to see themselves as victims and to blame and complain. We know that egoic self-centered motivations, along with negative emotions, never lead to happiness. We embrace humility as a virtue to cultivate. We know how to protect and nurture our bhava (our innate good mood and serenity of mind). When needed, we know how to utilize the yoga practices as tools to pull ourselves out of a bad mood. Jivamukti Yoga teachers teach asana as a way to purify our relationship with the Earth and all other beings and how that naturally would lead to bhakti, environmentalism, veganism, humility and happiness.
Through the five tenets: Ahimsa, Bhakti, Dyana, Nada, and Sastra we have become spiritual activists who are changing the way we view the world and our place in the world and our example is being followed by many. So, in summary, I am most happy about the fact that all the teachers and students within the Jivamukti Yoga Community are maintaining the linage and methodology and how it is evolving under the wise direction of Camilla Veen and Hari Mulukutla of Jivamukti Global.
Q: Is there any work you’ve done in the past that you no longer agree with or have changed your perspective on?
SHARON RESPONDS: No. I feel I have done my best with the opportunities that have been given to me. I am very grateful for my life—all of it, including the ups and downs, the trials, and tribulations. The yogic practice of santosha—”Loving What Is”—being happy and content with what comes my way, has allowed me to develop patience with myself and with others. I believe that we are all doing our best. I have learned that, personally, we don’t have much control over our lives—destiny is determined by our vasanas and samskaras, only bhakti—sincere loving devotion to God can override our past karmas. From a yogic point of view, bhakti is super important. In the Yoga Sutra, Patanjali gives us a one-step plan to Yoga, he says, Ishwara Pranidhanad va! PYS I.23. Which can be translated as: By giving your life and identity to God you will, without a doubt, come to know God—you will remember who you are, you will remember your connection (yoga) with your atman. That’s Yoga!
Q: Have you ever led a virtual yoga class, such as a Zoom session? How do you believe modern technology affects the practice of yoga?
SHARON RESPONDS: I have done zoom talks and Q & A sessions, occasionally. Although I have been asked to teach asana classes on zoom I have not—I leave that job to the many other very capable Jivamukti Yoga teachers. Modern technology is here, and it is not going away, it will only continue to develop. One quality of a yogi is their ability to adapt, adjust and accommodate to whatever situation they find themselves in.
As with anything it will appear and be utilized according to how the perceiver sees it.
Judgements like good and bad are never inherent in the objects, people or situations that we see—labels or adjectives like good or bad are in our own minds. We project our thoughts upon whatever we see. So, whether technology is a good or bad thing will be determined by how a person perceives it and the intention of the one who is using it.
Q: What do you see as the value of people coming together and sharing their yoga practice in group settings?
SHARON RESPONDS: When people come together in a group yoga session it creates a satsang. That gathering can provide support, encouragement, and spiritual upliftment, as well as challenges to personal held, unexamined beliefs. Coming together with others provides opportunities to learn and grow. With other people practicing with you in the same room there is an increase in the temperature. Heat (the fire element) can be very beneficial to transformation on the physical as well as on all levels of the personality, including psychological and spiritual.
Q: One of the many great things about the Jivamukti method is the sense of community that you facilitated, including “Tribe Gatherings”. I noticed that this year’s gathering is happening in Paris. Have your European students’ enthusiasm for your method outpaced the USA?
SHARON RESPONDS: The fact is, Jivamukti Yoga has always been very popular in New York City, where it was founded, but Jivamukti is truly a global phenomenon, and the European Jivamukti Yoga Community has always been strong and it continues to grow and expand.
Q: On a personal note, you shared publicly that you have reunited with your daughter. How are you enjoying being a mother and grandmother?
SHARON RESPONDS: My daughter Tia and my granddaughters, Alanna and Serena are exceptional women. I am in awe of their gracefulness, beauty, and accomplishments. We have each lived very different lives from one another and have immersed ourselves in different interests and values. But we also have lots in common. For example, all of us have a deep and abiding faith in God and we are all vegan! For me that’s definitely something to celebrate! At this stage, we are still working on getting to know one another and trying to find ways to facilitate better avenues of communication, so as to deepen and develop our relationship. A recent highlight was that on Thanksgiving Day, together, we all went to Ananda Ashram, in upstate NY, (where my guru Shri Brahmananda Sarasvati, taught and lived) for a delicious vegan dinner (prepared by Hari Mulukutla) and satsang afterwards, that included lots of Sanskrit chanting. Everyone seemed to have a wonderful time. Thank you for asking.