Minimalist Yogi - traveling to India with very little and yet not missing anything.

This is by no means a list that could fit everyone's needs. It is just what we frequently take on our journeys.

Naveen Joshi is a teacher of traditional yoga in Rishikesh. Let his young age not fool you. Naveen has been practicing yoga for about 18 years, learning from some outstanding teachers. Knowing Naveen for about a decade, we feel that authenticity is one of his primary qualities. Check the video interview to see it for yourself. Below is the text of this interview. 

1: a secluded dwelling of a Hindu sage; also :  the group of disciples instructed there

2: a religious retreat

Rajendra Pandey is a teacher of traditional hatha yoga in Rishikesh. This teacher is not extremely well-known in Rishikesh, as he seems not to be very interested in self-promotion. He has a small yoga center in a quiet place in Tapovan with a yoga hall that can fit 10-12 students. Rajendra Ji seems quite content with the smaller amount of students as this allows him to get to know each student closer and make yoga experience more personal.

If you're looking for a unique yoga style, check out this interview with Yogrishi Vishvketu, the founder of Akhanda yoga style. Akhanda yoga cultivates many hatha yoga practices that are rarely present in contemporary yoga studios. Vishvketu incorporates many techniques from traditional yoga, sukshma vyayama and kundalini into the sequence, but some of the dynamic pranayamas combined with asanas are unique to this style. 

TopYogis: Please, tell us about your personal journey with yoga, how it all started? 

Sunil Sharma is a teacher of yoga, meditation and particularly yoga nidra in Rishikesh. But most yogis know him as the author of Yoganga healing system, a therapeutic approach that uses yogic methods and techniques to help people get rid of their psychological and emotional problems. Sunil Sharma shared with TopYogis his insights on the healing power of yoga. 

TopYogis: Sunil Ji, tell us about your healing system.

Parveen Nair is Iyengar yoga teacher from Malaysia who currently teaches in Rishikesh. Although he has started giving classes in Rishikesh quite recently, he has already become one of the favorite yoga teachers among local people and international students.

So many come to India to find answers to life's persistent questions.

Who am I? What is my purpose in life? How to find happiness?

We look into the wisdom of the Vedas.

We try the yogic practices.

We cleanse with Ayurvedic panchakarmas.

We quiet our minds with meditation and energize our beings with chanting and mudras.

Is it helping us in our quest?

The fundamental realities of our stay in India can be quite overwhelmingly intense.

Usha Devi is a living legend in Rishikesh. A Swiss woman who has lived in India for 40 years, she has suffered two terrible accidents in 1998 and 2003 that crashed her legs. After 23 surgeries, there was little hope that she could walk again, but the guidance of her Guru B K S Iyengar and Usha Devi’s strong will and hard work resulted in a miracle.

Slava Gutsaluk is one of the most positive-minded and friendly yoga instructors in Kiev, Ukraine. His classes are well-structured, safe, moderately intense, and always inspiring. Slava has told with TopYogis about his approach to hatha yoga, developed as a result of extended practice and application of physiological knowledge to yogic techniques.

Yoga is frequently perceived as a way of practice that seeks the most optimal ways of combining both body and mind into one, efficient, seamlessly working unit. There are many other traditions and methods that have similar if not identical goals. One of them is I Liq Chuan. Joshua Craig, the teacher of Zhong Xin Dao I Liq Chuan, tells us about his journey. 

TopYogis: Please, tell us a bit about the beginning of your adventures with martial arts and meditational practices.

Natalia Poperechnaya, a yoga teacher in Kiev school of yoga, has shared with TopYogis some insights on why practices of Vajra yoga are safe from the point of view of biomechanics and common sense, why easier is better, and what important (and often ignored in other styles) elements of practice are included in Vajra yoga classes. 

TopYogis: Natasha, what is yoga for you and why do we come to yoga?

While traveling and visiting different yoga teachers around the world, we realized that many of them complement their personal yoga practice with other arts and traditions like Qigong, Tai Chi, meditation, etc. We have also met many martial arts teachers who use yogic techniques and meditation to enhance their own practice. It seems like it's a common thread among practitioners of body-mind related disciplines. 

Vadim Tsivan, a yoga teacher in Kiev, a poet and a developer of Soft yoga approach, has told TopYogis why yoga should be adapted to present-day circumstances, how to practice Soft yoga, and how yoga can help us live up to 150 years. 

TopYogis: Vadim, what is the goal of yoga for you?

Oleg Diachenko, a Kyiv hatha yoga teacher, Redcord instructor and the founder of training system for Stabilisation of spine and joints, shared with TopYogis some insights on why 15-minute yoga is the most effective workout, how to practice yoga when one is afraid, what happens when one develops a habit of keeping attention inside one’s body, and many other things. 

TopYogis: Oleg, what are your goals in yoga?

Anatoliy Zenchenko, the founder of Ishvara yoga style, has shared with TopYogis his thoughts on Ishvara yoga, headstands, signs of progress in yoga, and reasons why we try to put the leg behind the head. 

TopYogis: Anatoliy, tell us, what is the goal of yoga for you?

Anatoliy Zenchenko: It’s hard to say. Perhaps, it helps me to become more wholesome and content. That’s why I can say that I’m terribly selfish, I practice yoga to achieve happiness. 

Today we have a conversation with Yaroslav Tokarev, an instructor of yoga in Kiev with great experience of personal and teaching practice. Yaroslav combines techniques of Universal yoga with principles of ayurveda and individualized approach to every student. 

TopYogis: Yaroslav, what do you think is the purpose of yoga? Why do we practice?

Journalists of TopYogis are traveling in different countries around the world to discover outstanding yoga teachers and unique styles of yoga. We had the chance to talk with some of these teachers.

Do you know what yoga is? 

If you’re only a beginner in this practice, you may be in a sort of fortunate situation, because for you, yoga is clear as a day. You probably started classes with some teacher, and as you keep practicing, you imagine that yoga is a well-rounded practice that combines physical exercises, some breathing exercises, and relaxation techniques. The physical exercises may be more static (asanas), or more dynamic (sequences of asanas and vinyasas) and sometimes contain kriyas - a combination of breath and physical movement practiced repetitively.