I would like to share my thoughts here with you on what you could call being “lost in translation,” which is what happens when we translate the word sadhana and house it under the headline of PRACTICE.

It is the intentional aspect—practicing something with an intention or purpose—that transforms (pointedly) the ego. Practicing alone won’t do it. It is the intention behind the undertaking that makes it transformative—sadhana.

“How can you be sure that the journey of yoga leads to the truth? What is it that tells you that yoga is ‘the way’, to the goal of self realisation. We need to ask this, because as a rule we don’t usually believe something for the fun of it. For us really to believe something it has to seem plausible. From our posi- tion as students of yoga there is no proof to know if the path is valid. We take it on hearsay and rumour because we hear it works. From any position, right up to the final last step we know nothing about the next stage of our journey.

There are now many accounts of people being healed or restored through the practice of yoga. Better health, emotional balance and a holistic integration becomes evident in peoples lives. Many studies have been undertaken to verify the reported outcomes where yoga is benefitting people. Yoga is also found to be healing for many people, and is turning out to be a cure for some ailments.

While in a workshop with Stephanie Quirk in the U K., Heather Haxo Philips asked why some Western yogis seem to have an uncomfortable relationship to the yamas and niyamas. “We want to study them, we want to understand them, but we don’t know exactly how to do this. We haven’t found comfortable ways to bring them into our lives,” Heather said. “Why do you think this is?”

It takes lot of dedicated study to learn the technology and methodology needed for the myriad of cases that come to a teacher. It takes much more than a weekend workshop. When the teachers knowledge and experience is scanty they cannot help the student with confidence.

Hall was quiet cool, the floor space looking vast and empty, it is 3.50pm A lot of the assistants and teachers have arrived, they are sitting around the sides, quietly waiting, whispering between themselves or just sitting waiting. A few patients arrive early, they like to get their poses started early. They prepare their first poses and setups. The hall is still waiting.

As a world leader in Iyengar Yoga Therapeutics, Stephanie Quirk has taught extensively throughout Asia, Europe and America. After more than twenty years working with BKS Iyengar and his family in Pune, Stephanie now runs classes, workshops and mentorship programs out of Marrickville Yoga Centre in Sydney’s vibrant inner west. Here she catches up with Simon Joannou about Iyengar Yoga Therapy, her own teaching journey, and just what it was that kept her in India for over two decades.