Being a Yoga Teacher means being a Yogi. This is a big choice of one’s life because it brings a big responsibility. A Yoga teacher doesn’t mean someone who can do fancy poses, which is misunderstood these days. It means someone who practices 7/24 and can shed light on others way. Everyone can do yoga, but not everyone can be a yogi. As Patanjali’s Sutras says:
Now, after having done prior preparation through life and other practices, the study and practice of Yoga begins.
(atha yoga anushasanam).
So first of all one needs enough life experience to be ready to leave every thing behind. If you have desires to live your life, party, drink alcohol, have sex, enjoy shopping, etc. then you are not ready to be a Yogi. Not only me but also old texts like Upanishads, Sutras, Hatha Yoga Pradapika etc say so. So if you want to be a yogi, you have to choose your path decisively. In this Era being “Yoga Teacher” has become a fancy job. But in reality, it is not a job. Yoga needs experience of practice. Sustainability and devotion. A teacher who does not have experience about yoga/being a yogi, then s/he is doing nothing to teach the “Asana” but just trying to teach the “Pose”. Why a Yoga teacher is teaching poses? Asana itself is a key to open mind doors and connect one’s annamaya, pranamaya, manomaya koshas to each other. Asana’s system is complicated and a teacher needs to understand the system of yoga. Asana is the tool, but not the finer one. Any kind of Asana teacher should understand that Yamas and Niyamas come before Asana. So the teacher should practice and master Yamas and Niyamas first, then one can understand they are the very center of teaching, not the Asana. Think about it, If everyone just applies Ahimsa (non violence) which is the first principle of the Yamas, then there will be no war. Anyway if the teacher doesn’t care about the first 2 limbs of yoga, s/he is still doing something good, preparing people to become a student of yoga. So after several months/years with the awakening consciousness and energy, people start to seek for a yoga teacher, not a pose teacher. I am writing this to make one thing clear; Being a Yoga Teacher requires those other core things which are easily ignored in this era. Remember that; our path is leading the student to the highest Samadhi a student can ever reach.
