Global Yoga Educators Conference

The 6th global Yoga Educators Conference (YEC) was held again this year at CNS Sweden after last year’s success in Bali. Participants attended from all corners of the globe from Argentina, Africa, Europe to central, north and southeast Asia. Again we saw a variety of practical workshops and lectures on yoga and tantra related topics.

The conference started off with a lecture by Dada Shankarsana’nanda on the history of yoga covering influential personalities and events in the 7000 years history from Sadashiva till the more modern yogis such as Krsnamacarya and Srii Srii Anandamurti. The lecture showed how tantra has branched out to into various forms of yoga such as Raja and Astaunga yoga, Hatha and Rajadhiraja yoga.

For many years there have been requests from the AM yoga community to understand more about yoga for pregnancy and mothers and we were lucky this year to be able to bring Didi Ananda Uttama. Didi was a homebirth midwife before her sannyasi life and works today with pregnant women and mothers and babies in Qahira sector. Her presentation on the topic was well received by the audience.

Among the specialties of Rajadhiraja yoga is the bio-psychological aspect. Noel Camilleri from Malta, which is among our very senior yoga teachers, gave a popular workshop on the relation between the endocrine glands, stress and depressions, and how to control these conditions with asanas.

Dada Shantimaya, a certified homeopath, gave a workshop titled ‘Homeopathy as first aid’. Dada’s workshop was specially designed for yoga teachers and how to use homeopathy in treating their student’s injuries and ailments with special focus on anxiety, emotional tension, stress and digestive issues that many yoga students seek to get rid of when joining yoga classes.

Dr. Sauli Siekkinen (MD) from Finland has been a regular contributor to the annual YEC. This year his lecture was on scientific aspects on acidic versus alkaline food. As usual his lecture was a methodical in depth study of the topic and many new and practical points were brought into light.

Among the highlights this year we enjoyed Dada Svarupananda’s inspiring stories in the evenings. As the cool breeze of the Swedish summer nights set in, Dada conveyed memories of his time with his spiritual master, Baba. His amazing and touching stories contributed to the spiritual and uplifting atmosphere that encircled this year’s YEC.