"You are tangled up in others and have forgotten what your heart once knew."

-Kabir

Guru Chitrabhanu in NYC

Chitrabhanu comes to NYC from India every spring and gives satsang. He is charming, intelligent and full of light. He was a Jain monk for about 20 years and is now married with children. He was a collegue of Ghandi. I go to listen to him and I find him very genuine. If you are interested in satsang, you should give him a try. they only ask for a $5 donation to cover costs.

Wed May 14, 21, 28 at 7.00 PM

Location : Institute of Indian Culture 305 Seventh Ave /27th St 17th Floor
Information : Jain Meditation International Center : 212 362-6483 or www.jainmeditation.org
Donation : $5.00

New teaching schedule ...

Effective Friday June 6, my Hatha II (intermediate level) class at Integral will be changed to 6.00PM

Just FYI

Adopt an animal in need of a home.

My friend Kamaniya is a big supporter of animal protection education as am I, but I find Kamaniya always reminds me to say something about it.

This blog is inspired by the articles on Kamaniya's blog (see blog from last week) about the nightmare of puppy mills and the heartless, cruel treatment these "purebred" animals receive before being put on sale at your local pet store for hundreds of dollars in profit. It is much better to go to a shelter and adopt an animal that has been abandoned and desperately needs a safe home. The idea is to put the puppy mills out of business.

If having your heart set on a certain breed animal is what keeps you from taking a shelter animal, then please consider adopting from breed specific rescue groups. They have them for every breed cat, dog and horses. If you want a siamese cat, just google "siamese rescue" and you will find many organizations that have siamese cats waiting for your love and care. Some of these rescue organizations are in all different parts of the country.... but call them anyway because they may know of a cat closer to you.

Here are a few links just to give you an idea of what is out there.... if you want poodle or a german shepard, there are rescue organizations out there waiting for your call.

http://www.lab-rescue.org/ http://www.nycsiamese.org/
http://www.pugrescue.com/

Another way to adopt a dog is to call the guide dog organizations... there are always a few dogs who "fail" the guide dog training and who are then considered "useless" -- my friend Mike adopted a labrador who "failed" because she was too friendly and wouldnt stop wagging her tail. These dogs are smart, come pretrained, so they are perfect additions to your family. Any adoption fee goes to help support the guide dog organization. Also, guide dogs are generally retired after 8 years -- the blind person trades the dog in for a younger dog -- so there are also older dogs who have put in years of service who are in need of homes where they can live out their last years and be spoiled by a loving family.

Always be responsible about adopting an animal. make sure you will be able to make room in your life for this animal, have the time to spend with the animal and the money to pay for food and veterinary bills. Dont get an animal and then leave it tied up in the yard because you dont like dog hair on the furniture . Dont get a cat and then abandon it because it shredded your couch. dont get an animal and expect to leave the animal alone every weekend because you have to go to your weekend beach house. Dont get rid of the cat because your current boyfriend is allergic to the cat... get rid of the boyfriend or tell him to find a way to deal with it. I had an allergist once who told me to get rid of my 2 cats --- I got a new allergist and I am fine (so are the cats).

A sentient being is something to be loved and respected.

10,000 Girls

KAOLACK, Senegal (CNN) -- After the sudden death of her 26-year-old daughter left five grandchildren in her care, Viola Vaughn searched for peace.
Though she was a native of Detroit, Michigan, Vaughn had worked in Africa for most of her life and considered it home. So she and her husband returned there to raise their new brood and "watch the coconut trees grow."But the universe had other things in mind for me," says Vaughn.

She couldn't have imagined those plans would include both further tragedy and the motivation to provide educational opportunities to hundreds of failing schoolchildren.
Soon after their move to rural Kaolack, Senegal, in 2000, Vaughn's husband -- jazz musician Sam Sanders -- died of black lung. Amid her grief, she found comfort in her grandchildren, ages 4 to 12, and filled her days home-schooling them. Her success soon garnered attention from the locals.

"There was a little girl that my granddaughter played with. This little girl kept coming around and wanting to be taught with my grandchildren," recalls Vaughn.
"I went to see this child's mother, and her mother said she had already failed school once, that she couldn't pass because she wasn't smart enough. Well she was smart enough to come find me. And I said, 'OK, I'll help you.' "

Within two weeks, Vaughn had 20 girls in her house who were failing school and asking her to teach them. Vaughn learned that the regional pass rate for girls was low because it was rooted in the economic need of young girls to work at home. They begin missing classes, then failing exams, often ultimately failing or dropping out of school. So in 2001, Vaughn turned her grandchildren's bedrooms into classrooms and began supplementing girls' education.
Get Involved: 10,000 Girls

"I found every one a girl younger than she and said, 'You're responsible to make sure she learns.' I taught them how to teach each other." It worked. In two years, the group of girls had grown to 80 -- and they were succeeding in school. With a grant, Vaughn was able to hire teachers, and the program continued to expand despite her attempt to set a limit of 100 girls. "The girls wanted to take it to 10,000," says Vaughn.

To keep their "10,000 Girls" education program going, the girls asked Vaughn to teach them to bake. They began selling cookies and juice and were able to buy books and supplies.
Soon after, they got their older sisters, aunts and cousins -- who had already failed out of the school system -- involved in baking and selling goods. The entrepreneurial element of the program was born.

"They were supporting their cause," says Vaughn. "It was something remarkable."
Today, in addition to a pastry shop and catering business, "10,000 Girls" runs a sewing workshop and the girls export their handmade dolls and household linens overseas.
Half of the funds from these projects go back to the girls; the remainder supports the education program, no longer in Vaughn's house. More than 1,500 girls are involved in Vaughn's program in six locations; about 1,000 are waiting to join.

"We have girls who were told they'd never get through high school who are at university now," beams Vaughn. "We hope that if we get 10,000 girls out there, 1,000 girls will come back to Kaolack and work. It would revolutionize the whole region.
"Here I am, retired, and this is the best job I have ever had in my life."

My teaching schedule

My regular class at IYI is on Friday at 630pm - 8.15pm

I have called in a substitute teacher for a few classes at the end of this month because I am taking a Therapeutic Yoga teacher training and wont be available on Friday evenings. Just in case you dont know, yoga teachers are always taking more and more teacher trainings and courses (it costs a fortune). This will be the second teacher training for me in a month. There is so much to learn and there are so many fantastic teachers out there ...

Of course I want all of you to be my devoted students but it is good to mix it up with different teachers. I firmly believe you should expose yourself to different teachers and different yogas ... you will learn something different from each and every experience.

Just do yoga.

Kamaniya the Chanting Goddess....

I was at Ananda this weekend with my fabulous yogini friend Biljana and was lucky enough to catch a kirtan lead by the beautiful and talented Kamaniya. Her voice is so beautiful and strong and she lead the audience through 2 hours of uninterrupted blissful chanting ! JAI Kamaniya !

And of course, the evening would not have been complete without one of the ashram cats taking a casual stroll across the stage while the musicians played.

There has been a rumour that Kamaniya is working on her own CD... so look out for its release.

Here is a link to Kamaniya's blog so you can catch up on her news and where she will be performing in the future: http://kamaniya.blogspot.com/

$25 loan can help start a business
By Jen Haley CNN
(CNN) -- Lovisa Asinde is a Ugandan widow who supports herself and her five children selling food. She started the small business eight years ago, and planned to open a larger restaurant in the center of her town.

Lovisa Asinde of Uganda was able to fund her restaurant business with the help of foreign investors.

But when one of her children fell ill she was unable to work, and she lacked the $500 needed to buy saucepans, plates and food staples.
So, strange as it may seem, Asinde went looking for international investors. She found several.
New Yorker Bill Gilroy invested $100 in her business along with eight other investors from as far away as the Netherlands.
Gilroy has never met Asinde. In fact, all he knows about her he found on Kiva.org -- a Web site that connects entrepreneurs in developing nations to investors in the United States and abroad.
This is microfinancing. It allows everyday people to invest as little as $25 to help people in developing countries climb out of poverty. The concept of microfinancing is nothing new. At its essence, it's making small loans to the working poor. The loans are used to establish or expand small businesses to help families earn more money.
The industry's assets total about $34 billion, according to Microfinance Information Exchange, and there are as many as 10,000 microfinancing institutions -- known as MFIs -- around the world, according to Microcredit Summit Campaign, a coalition of advocates, donor agencies and educational institutions. Some of the industry's contributors include Citigroup, Morgan Stanley, TIAA-CREF and J.P. Morgan.
Premal Shah founded Kiva three years ago. The Web site posts profiles of entrepreneurs from 80 countries looking to start a business. Visitors can click through the pictures and personal stories to choose the business they want to fund, whether it's a dairy farmer in Bolivia or a young woman in Peru who wants to open a grocery store.
Don't Miss
In Depth: Right On Your Money
The entrepreneur generally repays the loan within six months to a year, the company says. During repayment, investors can see individual progress reports as they are posted to the site.
The investor doesn't receive interest on the money, but Shah says Kiva lenders usually don't want to earn a rate of return.
With MicroPlace, on the other hand, people loan money to the working poor through the Internet and receive a small amount of interest.
Lenders for the eBay-owned MicroPlace purchase securities instead of funding individual cases. The money generated by these sales is invested in microfinance institutions around the world. These microfinance institutions, in turn, find the entrepreneurs, make loans and collect payments. Most loans are paid off, with interest, within one to four years, according to MicroPlace founder Tracey Turner.
Contrary to expectations, repayment rates for microfinancing are high: Kiva's repayment rate is about 97.2 percent, according to Shah, and Turner says the historic repayment rate on microfinance loans in general has averaged 97 percent.
That's because people respect their obligations, says Peter Hall, the director of the Microfinance Information Exchange.
"It's not a society where people are very mobile. It's very family-based, community based. People aren't flight risks. They are grounded in a certain time and place. They do everything they can to improve their place in society," he says.
That's not to say there aren't challenges to microfinancing.
"The reality is that 80 percent of poor don't have access to microfinance," says Shah. "It costs a lot of money to go out and serve the poor. Banks are risk-averse institutions," he says.
As a result, interest rates on microfinance loans can be anywhere from 18 to 60 percent.
Some people argue that poor borrowers are more conservative in their loans, avoiding risks such as investing in new technology or expanding the workforce. And it's exactly these risks that turn profits.
Microfinancing also presents cultural challenges.
For example, there is a great reluctance for Afghan women to pose in pictures, and in Iraq, photos are blurred for security reasons.
But some problems can lead to cultural lessons.
Shah relates the story of a Cambodian woman who wanted a loan so she could start a spinach farm. Once she got the money, she used it for her daughter's wedding. The loan officer noted this on the site. Of course, investors were enraged. But that was only until they were told that weddings are one of the most important events in that culture.
Neither Shah nor Turner view microfinancing as a cure-all for global poverty.
"It can only help the working poor who are self-employed, entrepreneurial and want to improve their lives. There are many people in the world who are poor but do not fit this definition," says Turner.
But in the meantime, sites like Kiva.org and MicroPlace.com are helping to connect people all over the world in a common goal.
"I'm always on the Internet," says Gilroy. "I have disposable cash and it's rewarding; to put 100 bucks out there with a commitment on the other end. It's not like you're throwing money over the wall. It comes back to you. There is a sense of every little bit you do, helps," he says.
And in fact, Gilroy got his money back from his loan, in full.
Asinde succeeded in her mission. She bought furniture, saucepans, plates and new ladles. The loan also afforded her chicken, fish and passion fruit, in addition to a kitchen renovation. According to a journal update, her children are attending school and the restaurant is becoming well-known in the community.
"For years I have been selling cooked food through thick and thin," Asinde writes on her Kiva profile. "I struggled to look after my family. I thank God for the loan money you gave me. The people are now served according to their preferences unlike before when I used to sell only posho and beans."
Microfinancing is on track to help 100 million people this year, according to the Microcredit Summit Campaign. But no matter how large the field becomes, Shah says there is one simple thing to keep in mind.
"It's people helping people," he says. "That's a powerful concept."