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Jack Boken, known as Happy Jack, is a yoga teacher, speaker, and spiritual guide whose journey from addiction to devotion has inspired thousands. Through Happy Jack Yoga, he has built a global community focused on healing, connection, and yoga practice. His path has been one of continuous transformation, from temple life to the halls of Harvard, leading to a deep engagement with Bhakti philosophy and some of its leading practitioners. Now, as he nears graduation, he continues to bridge yoga, a

As a teenager coming of age in the 1960s, I was preoccupied with spirituality. I had become disinterested in the mainstream religion of my forbears, and I was passionately looking for a path that spoke directly to me as an individual.

I didn’t want some amorphous, otherworldly transcendence, either — this I knew for certain. Nor did I want mere political activism, which many in my day tied to spirituality in a rather tepid, tenuous way. Instead, I wanted something that truly nurtured my inner w

From Back to Godhead

How the Gita teaches the eight steps of hatha yoga, the topic of Patanjali’s Yoga-sutras.

According to a survey by the Sporting Goods Manufacturers Association, an estimated 13.4 million Americans practice yoga, and many more experiment with it every year. Yoga is everywhere—from Mumbai to Moscow to Monte Carlo. But while yoga is meant to bring one closer to God, many of today’s yogis have a different agenda, the most common being to keep their bodies in shape.

“They’re not

By Manmohan Singh 

It’s no doubt that long traffic hours, desk-bound jobs, endless chores, altogether lead to a complete mental and physical exhaustion. Owing to the overworked body, many people are unable to pursue their hobbies or find it difficult to indulge in any other form of exercise. All this is because of low energy levels and insufficient prana (vital force) in the body. Now, if you are wondering whether there exists any powerful solution to increase the energy, then the science of yo

By His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada

Ceto-darpana-marjanam bhava-mahadavagni-nirvapanam sreyah kairava candrika vitaranam vidyavadhu jivanam anandambudhi-vardhanam pratipadam purnamrtasvadanam sarvatma-snapanam param vijayate sri-krsna-sankirtanam. All glories to the sankirtana movement. Param vijayate sri-krsna-sankirtanam. Lord Caitanya Mahaprabhu, when He was only a sixteen-year-old boy, introduced this sankirtana movement 500 years ago in Navadvipa, India. It was not that

From Back to Godhead

In the West yoga is more popular than ever.

“It’s at the top of its game,” says Dan Gurlitz, general manager of Koch Vision, whose distribution of Yoga Zone DVDs and videos is a “serious seven-figure business.” According to Kimberly Leonard, writing in US News & Word Report, “During the last decade the number of Americans who report practicing yoga has nearly doubled to 21 million.” Other Western countries follow close

After Thirteen Years With a "Yoga Cheater"

The path from the hatha-yoga ashram to the Radha-Krsna temple is a well-worn one. Many people who are now ISKCON devotees had in the past performed various stretchings, contortions, breathing exercises, headstands, and silent meditations before they learned of the higher yoga of Krsna consciousness. But Amala-bhakta's case is extraordinary: not only was he an expert hatha-yogi when he came to the Los Angeles temple in February of 1976, but he was also

Have you ever seen this little sentence on your phone: “Searching for network?” I remember looking at that one day and thinking how the mind is always searching for a network, too. Especially when traveling, I look at the phone and it’s going back and forth: “Where’s the network? I need a network!” It wants to hook up to some network somewhere. 

If I don’t take charge of which network my phone connects to–if I just walk out the door–my phone will hook on to somebody else’s network. And for some

Yoga is often misunderstood as merely breath control, asanas or exercises; for some it is about practising some rules and regulations based on morality and for others it is cultivation of scriputral knowledge. But the real purpose of Yoga is to fix our mind on the Supreme.

According to Bhagavad-gita, yoga can not be practiced unless we practice mind control. An uncontrolled mind restricts the soul from reaching its natural blissful state, which a practioner is trying to acheive through yoga.

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A 200-hour full immersion Yoga Teacher Training Program concluded a few days ago at New Vrindaban taught by Gopi Manjari Devi Dasi. After an intense 18 days of training, six students went away with not only their well-deserved yoga instructor certificates but also a powerful introduction to Krishna consciousness, a heartfelt connection with Srila Prabhupada, and a memorable experience of bhakti.

Gopi Manjari is a seasoned yoga teacher who runs her own studio called “Bhakti Yoga DC” in the heart

By Madhava Smullen 

Since the beginning of the Covid-19 pandemic, the Bhakti Center in New York City has been offering a new selection of virtual yoga teacher training and meditation teacher training programs, as well as training in Ayurveda and kirtan.

Taking advantage of the online format, the classes are held at times that also accommodate a global audience – often hour-and-a-half sessions from 5:30 to 7:00pm on weekdays, with some modules offered between 10:00am and 5:00pm on weekends. This