With her Kundalini yoga teacher training in London coming up in February 2019, we caught up with Gurmukh on her Kundalini practice and what she’s excited to bring to the teacher training.
Starting in February 2019, international Kundalini yoga teachers Gurmukh and Gurushabd Khalsa will lead their acclaimed Aquarian 220-hour teacher training programme at triyoga in London. This Kundalini Research Institute (KRI) Level 1 certification programme will enable you to gain a deep understanding of Kundalini yoga and guide you on the path to becoming a teacher. For details and to book onto the Kundalini yoga teacher training course, click here.Â
Gurmukh will also hold a special information event in Camden on 16 December for anyone interested in the course and wanting to know more. To book onto the Kundalini teacher training information evening, click here.Â
1. How has the Kundalini community evolved since you began practising?
Yes, our community has evolved beyond my wildest dreams. When I began practising kundalini yoga, there were a handful of teachers throughout the United States, who then brought the teachings into Europe and then onward into México, Central America and South America. In the following years, the teachings spread across Asia. I believe that now every country has been touched by the teachings. Teachers are beginning to teach from Mongolia and Northern China, all the way down to Chile and below Chile. When I began practising kundalini yoga, I never ever thought our community would be as we are today, 47 years later. Good things last a long time, especially now as we are entering the Aquarian Age. This Science is so efficient and timely for people’s overcomplicated minds that are consumed with too much. Practising a kundalini yoga meditation, as taught by Yogi Bhajan for 11 minutes, can help fix people, set them straight and clear their minds.
2. What do you feel is the most rewarding aspect of being a teacher?
A teacher, in a sense, receives more through teaching than actually experiencing as a student. As teachers, we join the multitude of exalting energies in the Golden Chain of all those who have come before us and all those who will follow us in the years to come. As teachers we get so high, in a good sense; and we know how much we are helping others just as we have been helped, which is the reward.
3. What are your three favourite things about teaching in London, apart from hanging out with the triyoga dogs?
I love the London folks. They work hard. They are smart. They laugh a lot and are spontaneous. They know how to bear down in any kind of weather. I love to walk in London. I love the nature in London. I even love the rain! The pace compared to New York City and Los Angeles is so much slower, with an honouring of the quality of time. The London folks allow time to chat with each other and to be together… in restaurants, on the streets, and in yoga classes. I also love immensely the British accent, and the correct usage of the English language! My highlight is walking in to triyoga with Jonathan and the dogs… meeting them in the morning for good cup at the beautiful Retreat Café at triyoga Camden!
4. What makes the Aquarian teacher training a unique experience?
I have taught the Aquarian teachers’ training course all over the world for many years. I am not aware of another experience that tops this. You can climb the highest mountain, and swim the deepest sea; however, when you bring that mountain and that sea within yourself and within your consciousness, you go the depth to reach that joy and bursting creativity. There’s nothing that tops this experience. This is the reason that I keep teaching and teaching and teaching.
5. What is your favourite part of teaching the Level 1 training?
My favourite part of teaching the level one teachers’ training course is watching people grow and go through their changes, while holding them in the Sacred Space of growth as they go through their changes to come out from the cocoon as a butterfly. It happens. Within the cocoon, the butterfly has to wiggle and really has to work to emerge from the cocoon. Then once the butterfly’s wings open, the butterfly flies. That is the greatest joy! Gathering with our family all over the world is a great blessing. Once we graduate from the teachers’ training, when we travel to our big gatherings and festivals throughout the world, we are always with our brothers and sisters. Our longing to belong is actualised.
6. What advice would you give to those starting their training with you in February?
Come along to teachers’ training with an open heart and an open mind for the biggest adventure in your life, knowing that you have guides who will help you, who are there for you. Your fellow voyagers will help hold each other up. It’s like joining a circus… joining a sea voyage… climbing the highest mountain… and doing it all with others, and connecting with that Source which made us all. Wherever you are, if teachers’ training calls you, answer the call. You will be so happy!
Gurmukh is the co-founder of Golden Bridge Yoga, the premier centre for the study and practice of kundalini Yoga and Meditation as taught by Yogi Bhajan. For more than four decades students in Los Angeles and around the world have sought out her classes in Kundalini Yoga, Meditation, and Prenatal and Postnatal Yoga. Since being baptised more than 40 years ago with the spiritual name that means, “One who helps people across the world ocean”, Gurmukh has dedicated her life to fulfilling her namesake. As two of the world’s leading kundalini yoga teachers, she and her husband Gurushabd travel worldwide, bringing this vast Technology and Teacher Training Programs to students globally in the U.S.A., Mexico, Europe, Russia, India and South Africa. She is the creator and pioneer of The Khalsa Way Prenatal Teacher Training Immersion. Gurmukh’s book, The Eight Human Talents, has been a long-time yoga best-seller along with her many DVDs. Gurmukh founded Seva Corp., a nonprofit organisation that supports schools and orphanages in India. Her spiritual teacher Yogi Bhajan taught, “We came not to gather students, but to create teachers.” She has dedicated her life to the teachings of kundalini yoga as taught by Yogi Bhajan.
