Manju Sadarangani was born and raised in India, surrounded by yoga. Her yoga teacher mother insisted on an upbringing informed by yoga and traditional medicine. In her teen years, her deeply spiritual brilliant father joined a Hindu cult, resulting in upheaval resulting in her immigration to the United States with her mother and brother.
Manju found yoga in the US to be deeply puzzling. She would try yoga studios and styles of yoga in an effort to feel the spiritual solace of her childhood yoga practice, but felt extremely excluded at American yoga studios. Through most of her adult life, she avoided yoga, and practiced it only when she visited the country of her birth.
In 2019, serendipity led her to a kundalini yoga class. She was intrigued by this unfamiliar style of yoga which she found absurd and amusing, but was soothed by the elements of Surat Shabd that she recognized in kundalini yoga practice.
She enjoyed the element of play and creativity in her kundalini meditations, but found herself often flummoxed by the pastiche mantras and practices. She was offended by some practices (like excerpts of Japji inserted into kriyas) - but when she asked questions of kundalini teachers, they were not able to give her answers that felt logical or grounded in any yoga discipline. Her teachers encouraged her to take teacher training with KRI, telling her that was where she would get answers. Manju was understandably reluctant, especially after she read the book Premka.
In 2020, she was approached by representatives of KRI, who recommended a brand-new global teacher training program. This new TT was advertised as trauma-informed, inclusive, egalitarian - a symbol of the new direction KRI and 3HO were embracing. Manju applied to this new teacher training global cohort. She was one of only three Americans, all women of color. It turned out to be one of the most traumatic and racist experiences of her life.
Since then, Manju has relied on her command of languages, academic background in South Asian history, conversations with elders and teachers in India, and cultural background to deeply research, question, retrain, and reform her yoga practice. She connects deeply with the feminist, spiritual and historical foundations of yoga to counter problematic cultural appropriation. Her evolving yoga practice is grounded in a desire for equity, justice, emotional and mental well-being. She brings her spirit of play, body positivity and radical self-love to her yoga practice, acknowledging that her yoga journey makes her an inconvenient outsider the art of manju manjusadarangani.com
Song credit: Vaishnav Janto Tene Kahiye by M.S. Subbalakshmi
http://www.UndertheYogaMat.com
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GuruNischan is a trauma-healing activist, and consultant in personal and professional reinvention. To learn more about her reclamation and recovery work, please subscribe to GuruNischan.com
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