Yogi leaves a lasting mark (Interview with Bharat Gajjar)
Gary Soulsman, Delaware Online
January 12, 2008
http://www.delawareonline.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080112/LIFE/701120309/1005/LIFE

For 40 years, Bharat Gajjar has taught many to embrace yoga

Bharat Gajjar, one of Wilmington's first yoga instructors, has often told students that if they came to learn anything spiritual from him it was their bad luck.

The self-deprecating joke was Gajjar's way of keeping his ego in check and suggesting that there might be better teachers than a DuPont textile engineer.

Gajjar considers his passionate avocations, Hinduism and yoga, a form of service. And for more than 40 years, many have been grateful for his ability to teach meditation, explain sacred texts such as the Bhagavad-Gita (The Song of the Lord) and share the philosophy of yoga.

Marc Weisburg went to Gajjar's Sivananda Yoga Center in 1990 and was impressed by the teacher's peaceful, accommodating and nonjudgmental manner. Weisburg was eventually initiated into the Hindu tradition, traveled to India and continues to benefit from "the beautiful openness" he finds in the teachings.

The Claymont resident occasionally gathers with friends for satsang (spiritual devotion) in Gajjar's Coffee Run condominium, near Hockessin.

"A lot of us are grateful to having been exposed to this tradition in such a positive way," Weisburg says.

Gajjar is known for presenting hatha yoga as a kind of moving prayer rather than just an athletic exercise, says Scott Davidson, a longtime friend.

For 12 years, Gajjar has been teaching yoga on a half-hour TV show. You can catch him on Channel 28, with his daughter Meeta, every Thursday at 5:30 p.m.

In 2003, the yogi sold his Baynard Boulevard center, which, through the decades, had been a stopping place for seekers. Sold for $180,000, the center is once again a private home. Gajjar says he's given money from the sale -- about $100,000 after expenses and other donations -- to pay for schools in rural Indian villages.

Now that he's 76 and limited by arthritis, Gajjar has taken up writing. He's written a textbook about textiles and recently summarized his decades of teaching in a new paperback that echoes the title of his TV show, "Yoga for Health, Happiness and Liberation" (PublishAmerica, 2007).

He lays out the basics of Hindu philosophy and tells about having taught yoga at the Delaware Psychiatric Center and the Delores J. Baylor Women's Correctional Institution.

To encourage the women at the prison, he took roses to his students each Mother's Day. Gajjar cherishes a blanket they made him for Father's Day.

The News Journal recently talked with Gajjar about his life.

Q.: How much did you learn about yoga growing up in Gujarat, India?
A.: I was knowledgeable because of my father, mother and the society.

But yoga was not part of our family because we are business people. My father was a wholesale cloth and timber merchant.

In 1947, when I was young, people used to go to England. But my father thought America was an up-and-coming country.

So my brother, Navin, came here. He got a job with DuPont first, then went to MIT [Massachusetts Institute of Technology] and went back to work with the company overseas. I came to the U.S. in 1952 and studied at Philadelphia University, then joined DuPont in textiles in 1956 after I graduated.

Q.: What led you to get serious about Hindu philosophy?
A.: When my second child was born, I told my brother I have to send Meeta and Ajay, my children, to India for religious training.

He said, "Why don't we make a place for Indian culture here? Let's buy a building and make a center." So in 1965 we bought a three-story Wilmington home at 2307 Baynard Blvd. and opened a Hindu Center.

I started learning yoga and met my guru, His Holiness Swami Vishnu Devananda (1927-1993), and then I changed the name to the Sivananda Yoga Center. Yoga was getting more popular with Americans. And my guru's teacher was Swami Sivananda (1887-1963). He inspired me.

Q.: What does the word yoga mean to you?
A.: It's a way of living with the goals of God realization, self realization and life realization.

Yoga is a way of uniting with the Lord. I often talk about six ways to pursue this: Through knowledge (jnana yoga), devotion (bhakti yoga), selfless service (karma yoga), chanting sacred scriptures (mantra yoga), restraint and discipline (raja yoga) and the practice of asanas or postures (hatha yoga).

The objective of all this is to come out of the cycle of life and death, or reincarnation.

Q.: So a yogi is a person who has many ways of striving to unite with the Lord?
A.: Yes, and the form of yoga is not the end in itself. It's a process for God realization.

It seems that hatha yoga's postures make it easier to meditate and understand philosophy.

Yes, it's easier to have God realization when you are relaxed and you stretch. And, you will likely live longer and feel better. The feel better part is what a lot of people in the west have discovered. It's why there are so many hatha yoga classes. And, why not? Quality of living is essential.

Q.: You have arthritis and don't take any medication. Is there a connection with yoga?
A.: I think there is a connection. You see, I don't have pain. I do not need medication. I do breathing pranayama (breath control). My practices give me a quality of life. I'm peaceful and happy. I'm not naive, though. No matter how happy we are, we have to leave this world at some time.

Q.: What is the essence of the Hindu teachings for you?
A.: It's complete freedom that you are in charge of your destiny. With Christianity, if you accept Jesus, people say you go to heaven. It's almost like a guarantee. We have no guarantee. You have to work, to pursue the path that best suits you.

One guy comes to me and asks, "What will you do for me?" I tell him I'll do absolutely nothing for you. (Laughs.) Actually, I tell him that I'll show him the road, but he's got to walk it. He's free to devote himself to the philosophy as it appeals to him. I can encourage him and tell him that it can change his outlook. And I would not be joking. I've seen this many times. I saw it with my wife, Rupal, who transformed into a marvelous spiritual being.

Q.: How do people meditate?
A.: In the beginning, you focus on breathing or on a mantra or you just decide to be quiet and sit there. You have to stop thinking and drop the mind.

Q.: What does this have to do with God realization?
A.: Normally, your thoughts separate you from the Lord. When you take away those thoughts you are better able to achieve higher consciousness, and messages start coming.

Prayer is talking to God. Meditation is to shut up and listen.

Q.: In your book you tell about a spiritual guide speaking to you and guiding you from the time you were a young man in India.
A.: After many experiences I grew confident that it was Swami Sivananda, my guru's guru. He's like Jesus or Buddha to me. Students in my classes have told me of seeing a man in orange robes in the room.

Q.: They saw a kind of apparition or vision?
A.: Yes, and he helped me in countless ways: at work, in my family life, with my yoga students.

Hindu philosophy says a guru can guide you in the body or from the hidden spiritual plane. It makes no difference.

There is no way I could be on TV for 12 years without the guru's guidance. Before my shows, the guru had told me the subject to teach.

And how could I write a 400-page book on yoga? It's my guru giving me the guidance to make sense of life and share it with others.