27) Importance of July 14 for me

July 14 is a very important day in my life .Not only is it important because it is the Maha Samadhi day of Swami Sivananda , one of India's greatest spiritual teachers but also due to the fact that this was the day I started my Yoga Journey 12 years back in 1997 . I think it was a divine co-incidence that my Yoga journey started on the Maha Samadhi day of Swami Sivananda on July 14 . People ask me why I choose the Sivananda System and I say to them that I never choose the Sivananda System of Yoga , it choose me and I am ever grateful to the almighty for Yoga entering my life .For me July 14 was not just the day I started practising Yoga but it was also a day that started my assocition with the Sivananda Institution which I consider it to be an extended family of mine .Through this institution only I got certified as a Yoga Teacher by attending the Teachers Training Course in 1998 and then later went on to do the Advanced Yoga Teachers Training Course in 2004 and recently completed the Sadhana Intensive Course in Jan 2009 .It was due to the Sivananda institution that I got the offer of doing a 70 episode morning Yoga TV show for a private channell in 2001 and it was due to this institution that I came into contacts with many wonderful people worldwide . The Sivananda institution is a multi cultural University with people from various parts of the world as its staff and students and guests and the past 12 years have been an amazing experience for me meeting people from world over through the Sivananda Institution and I still continue to meet and make friends with people world over .Many times I had the previlege of Organizing retreats and taking many of these people out in and around Chennai and Thiruvanamalai being the favorite retreat spot . It was due to the Sivananda Institution that I was able to step outside of India first of all when they invited me to their Head Quarters in Quebec Canada in 2006 .The entire visit was sponsored by the Sivananda Organization and I had an excellent visit and enjoyed every bit of the same .Though I started to teach Yoga at the Sivananda Organization as a non paid volunteer slowly I started getting offers to teach outside and have now made it my own full time profession and today whatever success that I have as a Yoga teacher is due to the grace of my Gurus Swami Sivananda and Swami Vihsnu devananda and also due to my association with the Sivanada Institution . These days I am not very much active in the administration and the day to day activities of the Sivananda Centre in Chennai or in fact even teaching there as now my life is more focussed on my own Sadhana and my own private teaching but yet I maintain my association with the Organization through its teachings . Eventhough I read a lot about other Yoga Teachers and other yoga teachings yet at Core I follow the Sivananda System of Yoga both in my own personal practice as well as when I teach others and will continue to do the same . The last 12 years journey through the Sivananda Institution was not always a smooth one and had its own highs and lows but each experience was shaping me and educating me and had enriched me and expanded my vision and outlook and overall I was very much benefitted by my association with the Sivananda Institution and that was due to the grace of Swami Sivananda who brought me in to this institution on July 14 , 1999 and I am very much grateful to him for the same and always thank him for making me as a Yoga teacher .