Today we held our first “Atma Yoga - Drink the Kool Aid” session. Those of you who have read “7 Practices of Effective Ministry” know that practice number 7 is “Work on the System”.
My Guru Maharaja mentioned to me that one thing I could do would be to investigate ways and means of integrating the Atma Yoga system with existing Loft centers. I’m a hardliner from the old school - “if you can’t beat ‘em, join ‘em”, you know, where you debate with an opponent and if you can’t defeat them you subscribe to their philosophy. Anyway, when I saw Atmananda das give his presentation at the recent Loft preachers’ Retreat in Taupo I drank the Kool Aid. When I saw Channel give the Atma Power Yoga class here in Brisbane after returning from the six week Atma Yoga teachers training course, I drank a double dose.
My conclusion is that the best way to convert an existing Loft center to Atma Yoga is to just do it. Monkeying around is just wasting time. Atma Yoga is the way, the truth, and the light. It is categorically superior to ad-hoc yoga programs.
Here’s why: from the Sita-pati sez files:
Individual succcess which does not contribute to organizational success is irrelevant.
Individual victories pale into insignificance in the face of overall defeat.
It’s no good if you make a successful Loft center if that doesn’t empower and enable others to do the same thing. This is not about oneupmanship, it’s not about individual success, it is about constructing an organization, with systems, processes, and replicable successes in order to create the momentum needed to stem the tide of the degeneration of human society by redressing the current imbalance of values.
Atma Yoga, apart from being a rocking yoga system, is a yoga system. That means that you have the opportunity to contribute to something bigger than your own sphere of activity. You can create reusable resources. Your efforts benefit others as well as yourself, and in an organized and efficient manner.
It’s not just about “becoming all you can be” - it’s about becoming more than you could be, and helping others to do the same.
If you’re worried about what your current guests will think - forget it.
Number 1: Atma Yoga is superior. Full stop. The presentation is superior, but let me talk about that in a separate post.
Number 2: Don’t be worried that some people might not like it. First of all, it’s superior. Second of all, this mission is too important to be hamstrung by the negative reactions of a few people. Whenever you do any change someone will resist. There are more people “out there” than there are in your center right now. Factor them into your equation. If you abandon something that will enable you to better serve larger numbers of people, and empower others to do so also, because of excessive concern for a few people, you are performing a disservice.
The biggest resistance, and the resistance that you have to be concerned about, is from your staff.
Now you might think from reading what I wrote above: “Man, this guy has really drunk the koolaid, and he sounds like a fanatic”.
So here’s the crux of the matter. In order to transition your center from a Loft to getting on the Atma Yoga program, you have to have someone who will champion the change. You need someone who has drunk deeply from the Koolaid. There will be resistance internally, and that’s the resistance that you have to be concerned with. So you need someone who will lead that change, who will model that change.
The “Atma Yoga - Drink the Koolaid” sessions are held at 6.30 am and are for our yoga teachers, to familiarize them with the Atma Yoga way. I’ve taken the role of champion for this change. Channel is our Atma Yoga trained teacher, but I’m the koolaid dispenser.
The Atma Yoga brand, like any other brand, draws its strength from complete brand alignment. The real benefits of Atma Yoga are going to be realized when we get the system to the level of efficiency of MacDonalds (hey, they’re very successful at being evil 
).
Yes, it’s about the people - it’s about the guests, and it’s about the staff. Without the people powering it, the system is worthless. But the system enables and empowers the people. Building the system is the goal.
We have to always remember: It’s not about us, it’s about the mission.
Anyway, different people will do it different ways. What we are going to do here is an edge case. I’m not afraid to experiment, and to risk whatever we have. If there is one thing that I’ve realized in Loft preaching, it’s that even the most successful center, Gaura Yoga in Wellington, NZ, where they have been turning people away due to their capacity for years, is incapable of serving the host population. And they only have 130,000 people in the metropolitan district there.
With an Atma Yoga system reproduction of a Loft center becomes more precise. At the moment the reproduction of centers is too slow. It relies too much on inspired people with certain sets of talents and pioneering initiative. We need mass production. We need a system that encapsulates the expertise and alleviates the burden on the people who will open the center. How many Loft centers in your city? One at the most. How many yoga schools? Heaps. Do the math.
So guys on the team here, this is why I am asking for a total commitment to this transition. If it fails, let it fail because it was impossible, and not because we didn’t give it 100%. And trust me - it won’t fail.
Yeah GYC is bursting at the seams.
I was checking out the local Buddhists (http://www.meditate.org.nz/wellington/index.php). They’re spread all over over Wellington, Lower Hutt, Upper Hutt, Kapati, using community and church halls.
Small is beautiful. The GYC model necessitates a decent kitchen though…
I wrote about this problem last year in April in an article entitled The Loft - headed to failure.
What do you do when you are completely successful? A paradigm shift is on the horizon.
btw: my copy of First XI arrived a few days ago, although I haven’t had much time to read it yet.
The ‘E-myth’ small biz book preaches the glories of a consistent predictable system for biz success. Of course, if you want to mass produce something, then you irst make sure your prototype is excellent and approved by experts in the field.
just curious … how will the staff in these mass produced yoga /preaching centers be trained to represent the parampara and present the siddhanta authentically? is this something that can be mechanised?
… without going into great depth, these are just a few ‘Kool-aid drinking’ impedements that came to mind.
This drinking the Kool Aid thing you are using is really boogling my mind. I was in ISKCON when the Jonestown thing went down and it caused some major problems that took years or even decades to erase.
We were so inextricably bound up with the massacre in the public mind as they did not differentiate one cult from another. We were mentioned in almost every article on the subject. It was a super branding headache. It bothers me that you would even casually make the link. Contact the ISKCON public relations department, whatever they are called nowadays, to get some background on this.
We are not members of the general society, who can trivialize the Kool Aid thing into some cliche thing. But even the example you used gives the impression it is used to denote voluntarily accepting something from an authority, even when you know it is wrong and it is doomed to failure.
So from either perspective, I would strongly advise you to reconsider using the term.
From wikipedia (reference): “The phrase can also be used in the opposite sense to indicate that one has blindly embraced a particular philosophy or perspective (a “Kool-Aid drinker”). This usage is generally limited to those in or commenting on United States politics, but also appears in discussions on computer technology, where someone who is a staunch advocate for a particular technology is described as having “drunk the Kool-Aid”.
This is the only usage of “Kool-Aid” that non-American speakers of English are likely to recognise.”
Most of the people in the world, I believe, live outside America. Of course, wikipedia’s authoritativeness is controversial.
I’m being a little bit ironic about my own commitment to the concept, and also signalling that any reservations or doubts that we may have about it need to be put aside while we implement it. There are no questions of if, only how. We have to be 100% committed to it, even though “it may not work”. This will in turn actually ensure that it will work. If we think: “This might not work”, then our failure to apply ourselves 100% will actually doom it to failure - not because it was a bad idea, but because we didn’t believe in it enough to make it happen.
The reason that I’m being ironic about my commitment to the concept is because while it may look like blind faith to those who can’t see an as yet unmanifest future, it’s perfectly obvious to me. It just looks like I’m drinking Kool Aid.
I just checked with one of the Americans in the office here, in his late 20s. He knows what “drink the Koolaid” means, but he has no idea where it comes from, nor has he heard of Jonestown. I guess if you weren’t around at the time the CIA coverup of their mind control experiment has been quite effective.
Triyuga, yes! As you mentioned in NZ. And the thing is that Atmananda is working on doing that. Apart from that there has not really been the same effort to systematize the yoga aspect. So it’s not really a case of “if” Atma Yoga, because there are no alternatives to choose from. It’s just a case of “how”, a question of engaging with the Atma Yoga program, and co-creating it through contribution. You gain influence through contributing, not through armchair critiquing.
There has been some pressure to get teacher certification here in Australia. We are supposed to be the official representation of Krishna, who is Yogesvara, so how can we go somewhere else to get accreditation? We have to become the canonical authority. Atma Yoga is a fully Vaisnava yoga system. Right down to the music used, everything is created by devotees. That’s Atmananda’s vision and commitment. I believe in that, and I’m inspired to get in behind and put my shoulder to the wheel too.
Ekendra, people act naturally according to their internal states. Values are transmitted through community and culture. Atma Yoga is about community and culture, not mechanization. Systems and replicability do not necessarily equal mechanization or depersonalization. Initiation and disciplic succession are themselves two examples of systems and replication.
The most important thing about the success of Gaura Yoga (IMHO) isn’t the yoga, it’s the prasadam (+ mood, ambience and people). Atma Yoga does not necessarily include these all-attractive aspects. There is more to reproducing yoga throughout the world than just the actual yoga system.
I think there is some work that needs to be done to integrate the non-yoga aspects of Gaura Yoga into the yoga aspects of Atma Yoga.
Yes, I agree with you completely Candidasa. The work on integrating Atma Yoga into the Loft paradigm is what we’re working on. It’s a trivial exercise really.
One of the the biggest attractions of the Loft is being able to sit down and look at the face of another human being while you eat. That’s the most basic element of human community, and it’s missing from many people’s lives. They are so isolated and alienated! As we’ve discussed previously, when the Loft first started there were no yoga asanas. And in 10 years time perhaps again there will be no yoga asanas, but right now yoga asanas are big. So if we’re going to be doing that, then we should do it.
At the moment if you want to open another center you have to find someone to teach the yoga asanas. It’s a hassle. With the Atma Yoga system that becomes a trivial detail which you can wave a wand at. Send someone on an Atma Yoga teachers training course and you have someone who can teach asanas, and the whole presentation is integrated with the Vaisnava philosophy and molded to the Loft style of presentation. Instead of having to divert energy in each center to try to maintain and improve that, and having an inconsistent level of excellence across centers, you put a little bit of energy into it, and share that across the organization. It’s a synergy that reduces your effort and increases your effectiveness.
The Atma Yoga asana system becomes one of the components that you use to assemble your center. Instead of having to craft your lightsaber in an adobe hut in the desert of Tatooine, you grab a blaster off the rack of the armoury as you rush out the door….
Atma-yoga is about presence, believabilty and showmanship. The poweryoga set itself is a safe, effective and enjoyably challenging yoga set. If you have the presence, believabilty and showmanship then you will give people an excellent experience. If your uptight about whether or not you will pander to the needs of a few iyengarites then probably better to stick to that. For me personally though, give me Atma-yoga any day. With Atma-yoga comes a whole package of knowledge, resources and training assembled by Atmananda prabhu under the authority of H.H Bhakti-tirtha Swami who specifically asked him to do this. As Sitapati said “The work on integrating Atma Yoga into the Loft paradigm is what we’re working on. It’s a trivial exercise really.” It’s not a matter of if, it’s a matter of how and how will be done when you have a team of go-getters. As Prabhupada said “cant, is in a fools dictionary”.
[…] Nalakuvara left a comment where he said: “Atma Yoga is about presence, believability, and showmanship”. […]
“Initiation and disciplic succession are themselves two examples of systems and replication.”
True, but inherent to Krishna’s system is internal and personal surrender + transformation. Without this then, obviously, there is no succession of enlightenment or authority and the system is enacted in name only much like the caste system. It seems to whatever degree we lack in surrender we are subjected to impersonalism that could be so easily displaced by a little confidence/experience in our position as an insignificant servant.
I’d be really interested in how you justify pushing physical yoga onto people as bonafide preaching in accord with Srila Prabhupada’s directives. I spoke with our Guru Maharaja just two weeks ago about this and he said that his intention with the yoga was that it should just pay the bills - not a preaching lure. Is what you’re trying to do here in line with that? You stated here that he asked you to ‘investigate ways and means of integrating the Atma Yoga system with existing Loft centers’. So it seems that either you are being misleading or he is. ??
In any case, I hope you, and whomever you can manage to impress, enjoy the Kool-aid. I also hope you soon have the realization that the real force behind preaching is in authenticity and transparency and has very little to do with innovation and manipulation. Good you’re trying to preach though - I guess you could be doing a lot worse things.
I just get bent out of shape because I reckon (hope) I’ll still be around to deal with the aftermath of misaligned efforts and all of the surrealistically skewed attitudes they generate that keep the sankirtana movement from really going forward. I’d truly like to contribute towards a cohesive and powerful force that will drown the world in love of Krishna. I don’t think that any amount of manipulation, regardless of how sincerely it may be intended, will achieve this. We just need to preach/live based on Lord Caitanya’s principle of chanting Hare Krishna and educating others in accord with the Bhagavad-gita and Srimad Bhagavatam as Srila Prabhupada directed us to. I believe he was aware of how much attendence he could have pulled with a few yogic techniques and impressive asanas but he never resorted to this himself. He kept the message and presentation intact not only for himself or intimate followers but for everyone he came in contact with.
Have you read the conversations? Influential people got up and walked out of the room on a regular basis because Srila Prabhupada wouldn’t budge on a point. He was certainly as tactful as possible but he never wavered in his presentation of the authentic teachings of Lord Caitanya (which has squat to do with this distracting hatha-yoga stuff).
So I’m ‘calling a spade a spade’ here. I think the whole thing is headed in the wrong direction and would rather live with whatever exclusion such a position entails than contribute in the slightest to its furtherment. Also here’s some reading that I think will do you some good:
“The author of Bhakti-rasamrta-sindhu, Srila Rupa Gosvami, very humbly submits that he is just trying to spread Krsna consciousness all over the world, although he humbly thinks himself unfit for this work. That should be the attitude of all preachers of the Krsna consciousness movement, following in the footsteps of Srila Rupa Gosvami. We should never think of ourselves as great preachers, but should always consider that we are simply instrumental to the previous acaryas, and simply by following in their footsteps we may be able to do something for the benefit of suffering humanity.”
- Introduction to Nectar of Devotion
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“So far the Road Show and the Yoga Village are concerned, these things should be stopped. Simply perform our kirtan. If we divert our attention in this way, the whole thing will gradually deteriorate. He is going far away. All these things are nonsense inventions. Such inventing spirit will ruin our this movement. People may come to see, some will become devotees, but such devotees will not stay because they are attracted by some show and not by the real thing or spiritual life according to the standard of Lord Caitanya. Our standard is to have Kirtan, start temples. What is this ‘Road Show’ and ‘Yoga Village?’ It will be another hippie edition. Gradually the Krsna consciousness idea will evaporate: another change, another change, every day another change. Stop all this. Simply have kirtan, nothing else. Don’t manufacture ideas.”
- (Srila Prabhupada to Sudama, 11/5/72)
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your affectionate but fairly disappointed servant,
ekendra das
Prabhu, I beg you. Please do not allow me to distract you from your service. If you disagree then please find something else to focus on. I pray for your wellbeing and happiness in Krishna Consciousness. Know that as Krishna blesses you and you are successful I will follow you with folded palms.
Following the teaching of Srila Rupa Goswami Prabhupada and Srila Bhaktivinode Thakura, Accept the favourable and simply neglect what you consider to be unfavourable.
There are so many people out there that I disagree with, but I follow a simple formula that I have developed from studying Sri Bhaktyaloka:
If you have a success story to tell, then by all means tell it.
If not, but you know what to do - then gain some credibility: Go out and do it.
If not, but you know someone who knows what to do: Follow them.
If none of the above, then whatever you do, don’t waste time fruitlessly criticizing others.
My realization is that criticizing what others do is a symptom of not being fully engaged in doing what is right, and what needs to be done. Whenever I find myself criticizing others, I think: “What the heck am I doing that I have time to think about that? I am not using all my energy in my dharma.”
And imagine what would happen if I were wrong, and wrongly criticized someone?
I would like to encourage you to publish more of your activities that you are performing according to your realization of the teaching on your website. Your good positive example will do more good than contributing attention to something that you consider wrong.
I have a saying that I utilize in this regard. Whenever I see something that I feel like criticizing I check the reflex and rechannel the energy, saying to myself: “The only valid critique is a superior result.” As you say, Purity is the force.
I think these things are more useful to meditate on than criticisms and point-for-point rebuttals. Argument is inconclusive, and arises from a desire for conquest as the scriptures and saints tell us.
However, for the benefit of the audience who may wonder about the points you have raised, let me leave you with two things. First of all, a quote from a conversation between those mahatmas Vidura and Maitreya Muni in the Srimad Bhagavatam that particularly lives within my heart:
“…(t)he whole idea is to draw the attention of the mass of people to krishna-katha [Bhagavad-gita] through their strong affinity for hearing mundane topics.”
SB. 3.5.12
Secondly, rather than imagine a case where someone must be misleading, we might be better to think, “maybe there is something that I am missing here, let me give the benefit of the doubt, and continue with what I know to be right.” Our focus on what we know to be right will be more beneficial than a focus on what we imagine or suspect to be wrong.
I personally feel that it is unwise to speculate about the motivations of another. I find the personal example of Srila Gopal Bhatta Goswami to be very inspiring in this regard. He never criticized anyone, and he always considered that everyone was serving Krishna to the best of their current realization and ability, which when you think about it, is actually pretty much the state of things.
As they say “atmavan manyate jagat” - our attempts to identify the minds of others really only reveals our own mentality. I’m by no means perfect. I fall down into these things myself all the time, which is why I’m sharing this. I’m working on improving my ability to rechannel all that wasted energy into actual positive engagement. So much time and energy can be wasted. Imagine how many people there are out there that we could disagree with. I think it best and healthy to just keep on keepin’ on with what you understand to be right, and avoid as much as possible wasting time on the countless millions of mislead people and their pursuits. We have to give the good example and let that speak for itself.
If you wish to continue discussing these matters, then my humble request is that it is done using articles published on your blog and trackbacks. I will not be accepting further full comments on this thread, but will be happy to publish links and trackbacks to your presentation of your realizations.
Sorry, we need to clear the communications channels a bit here. Firstly - I’m NOT YOUR ENEMY and am not on a mission to BRING YOU DOWN or whatever. I like you and think of you affectionately as one of my dear family members.
I don’t, however, share your impersonlist approach towards what’s going on around me and what other people are doing. I don’t consider it a waste of energy at all to point out danger to those I care about. I’m too attached to the potential of what this sankirtana mission could be to just shrug my shoulders and think ‘ce la vie‘ when my associates are in a frenzy to plow forward without due consideration. I think that you may be subjecting me to a little of your own ‘atmavan manyate jagat‘ thinking that my criticism is coming from the same place that your criticism might come from.
“What the heck am I doing that I have time to think about that? I am not using all my energy in my dharma.”
Who’s dharma?
I don’t want to see a much larger amount of collective energy wasted so I put myself through the austerity of performing the thankless task of pointing out the shortcomings in these endeavors. I think that you’re a broadminded enough person that you’d appreciate the critique rather then tell me to mind my own business. I DO consider what other devotees are doing to be MY business as I am effected by their actions and have to live with whatever results come. I’m no island unto myself although it seems I’m forced to observe others having to learn things the hard way. I think we could do better than that and wish that our society would come of its own and learn things more intelligently (by hearing and deliberation). …………… ahhhhhh! what a beautiful day that would be! …………………….
I never expected you to address any of the points I’ve presented as that doesn’t seem to be your style when confronted with any sort of authority that doesn’t conform to what you’re thinking or want to do. Since you mentioned Srila Bhaktivinode Thakur, I’d also like to remind you that in that very same book he makes the differentation between criticism for the sake of criticism (agreed - waste of energy) and criticism for the betterment of others which is generally wanted in a communtity of sincere transcendental aspirants.
“I think it best and healthy to just keep on keepin’ on with what you understand to be right, and avoid as much as possible wasting time on the countless millions of mislead people and their pursuits. ”
I’m not trying to addresss ‘countless millions’ here and don’t appreciate being portrayed that way (although we both share global reformation as our life’s goal). I’m concerned with what YOU are doing and with who YOU are influencing as you are acting within my immediate vacinity - what to speak of your unabashed and frequently articulated desire to become some sort of leader in our society. This is personal. I know you don’t appreciate it and it makes you uncomfortable but I’m not the kind of person who just sits by and watches those I care about make a mess of things. I guess I’ll have to do that here though because you percieve my criticism as some form of ‘attack’ stemming from myself not being engaged properly? Do you know what my program is like? Can you really say that?
“I personally feel that it is unwise to speculate about the motivations of another.”
Agreed. I’m not speculating on your motivations. I’m dealing with what’s on the surface (what you’re saying and doing). I have my own motivations to wrestle with and I don’t think I have any expertise or spare time to start wrestling with yours. The immediate things, however, are fair game in my book.
“We have to give the good example and let that speak for itself.”
Granted that this is most likely the type of thinking I’ll end up taking shelter of here, yet not without giving you a chance to see things from a different perspective FOR YOUR BENEFIT. Hey. I welcome any reciprocation too and prefer it over impersonalism any day. Let’s make our friendship worthwhile! Don’t your leadership books mention the value of having a naysayer onboard? If you just surround yourself with ‘yes men’ do you really think you’d achieve the maximum potential? I KNOW you won’t.
Anyway. I tried. I can live with that. I can’t live with not trying as it seems to be part of my dharma (as you mentioned) to communicate these things.
Hare Krishna. Best of luck in your pursuits. I also pray that Krishna guides and protects you in some other way than through my impure attempts to help out. Here’s the most beautiful thing I’ve read in a long time:
“The shining full moon of Lord Caitanya was born from the milk ocean of Srimati Sacidevi’s womb; that moon is learned in the sixty-four astonishing transcendental arts, and it appears very splendid dressed in glorious saffron garments the color of the rising sun. That pure and beautiful moon is full of the nectar of pure love of God, and possesses the luster of the sattvika-bhava ecstatic symptoms. It appears like a great ocean of mercy. That moon is the combination of Lord Krishna, the Supreme Personality of Godhead, who is the source of innumerable incarnations, and the supremely beautiful Srimati Radharani. May that moon of Lord Caitanya arise within the sky of your hearts.”
- Sri Caitanya Candramrita 3.15 by Srila Prabhodananda Sarasvati (Tungavidya gopi in Caitanya-lila)
Point for point is not my style prabhu. I’m not uncomfortable - I just don’t have time or energy for it. If you don’t want to address the countless millions then just send me an email and keep it personal.
ys,
Sita-pati das
there’s that quote of yours sita i saw early on in my coming to read what you’re thinking/doing:
“If you have a success story to tell, then by all means tell it.
If not, but you know what to do - then gain some credibility: Go out and do it.
If not, but you know someone who knows what to do: Follow them.
If none of the above, then whatever you do, don’t waste time fruitlessly criticizing others.”
i like it. saved it.
will now try to remember it.
agtsp
[…] I don’t disagree with the idea that I expressed in March in “Reinventing the Wheel by Drinking Kool Aid“: “My conclusion is that the best way to convert an existing Loft center to Atma Yoga is to just do it“. […]