The following is a draft welcome message written for the Ma Festival program booklet. I've posted it here to help keep alive my vision of bringing a yoga festival to Australia and potentially New Zealand.
“Ma” is Hindi for “mother”
It all begins with your teacher.
It didn’t take me long to work out my best performances in life have been orchestrated in partnership with the right teacher. I’m sure if one casts their mind back to their school days, even as early as kindergarten, there will be a teacher you were drawn to and resonated with.
I remember my mother and me giving my early grade teacher in Darwin pot plants as a thank-you at the end of school term. Of course at four or so years old, I can’t really remember what the teacher looked like, but I remember the way she made me feel.
And my grade 3 teacher - I don’t recall his name but I remember him because he was a great teacher.
In year 7, there was a teacher from America at my primary school in Alice Springs who helped to cultivate leadership qualities in me - president of the student representative council as well one of the leads in the school play.
Then I remember the yoga teacher who, inadvertent to him, was responsible for the start of my yoga journey.
His name is Johannes and his commitment, respect and dedication to yoga inspired me. Johannes taught Iyengar and Bikram yoga classes.
As yogis we gravitate to a particular style and the more we practice, the more inclined we are to align ourselves with certain instructors.
Once you’ve found your teacher – it’s a magnificent course that follows.
That’s why when I discovered Shiva Rae and Saul Raye David in Los Angeles I knew I had hit on something special.
In my first class with Saul David Raye, I knew I must do whatever I can to bring both he and Shiva to Australia as part of a Yoga Festival.
The yoga community is burgeoning in the States and we have a healthy representative of yogis in Australia too. But in the 10 or so years I've been regularly practicing yoga, I've never quite experienced anything like Shiva and Saul make you feel.
Thank-you for joining me at the inaugural Ma Festival and in helping to make this part of the new evolution of Festival in Australia.
I trust Australian yogis will be as inspired and motivated by these phenomenal teachers as I am.
As well, enjoy the Kirtan, motivational talks and meditation that helps Ma Festival become your home for three days of spiritual and transcendental experience.
Welcome and Namaste
CAZI James
Be like the bee that gathers pollen from many flowers and then makes its own honey. Learn from the greatest masters you can find and then practice and assimilate what you have learned.
Abhinavagupta Kularnava Tantra
The above quote was sourced from Saul David Raye’s website: www.sauldavidraye.com
Photos:
1&2. Yoga instructor and Kirtan singer Saul David Raye
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