YOGAVILLE

The Place

Two days of prayer, release and immersion into spirit with a people on a path different than mine. Back from a dream into another I am a different man for the experience. There were no planes flying overhead breaking wind and rhythms or altering currents. The people were Yogi’s, students, teachers, masters, and spiritual people from around the globe, largely white; all seeking to balance and understand their place in the world.


The people, including the staff, were kind, considerate of each other and focused on their path and purpose. The draw for the weekend was a musician, Jai Uttal with Daniel Paul. These two men were “Drawing from an unbroken tradition of Indian devotional singing.” Jai Uttal introduced me to “the ancient practice of “kirtan” (or chanting), the heart of devotional Yoga.”


Jai Uttal wrote, “These ancient chants contain a transformative power and healing energy. By singing these prayers and expressing a full range of emotions through our voices we join a stream of consciousness and devotion that has been flowing for centuries.” This is the best way to describe the worshiping. I could not find the words.


The retreat center has some extraordinary temples on the land for silent meditations built upon an energy line in the forest beginning atop a small mountain and ending in the lowlands. There is a Lotus temple on the low land with two levels. The levels mirror each other and speak for each other in their honoring and understanding of the spiritual paths of mankind. There is sacred power here. It, itself, asks to be experienced. I could not make you see what my spirit, body, senses and emotions felt or perceived.


The puzzling and curious thing about Yogaville and the practice of yogis is their relationship with earth. Intellectually and in prayer earth is grasped, understood and acknowledged but it is a distance relative. The prayers and meditation on 800 acres of woodland is dense, powerful, and is a large circular presence that extends beyond their borders. That itself needs to be experienced.


The woods are a buffer against the world and its distractions and illusions. But it was inconceivable to those I asked that it could be anything more. There was no relationship with the Earth outside of the abstract of intellect, concept and prayer.

-Gregory E. Woods,

Keeper of Stories

November 1, 2006