The Heist

What:
Yoga workshop with a yogi stronger than cobra venom!

Where:
Yoga Arts Academy, Lvl 3, 360 Collins St, Melbourne

When:
Sat Jul 31 - Sun Aug 1. Four sessions, 8-10am  and  2-4pm each day.

How much:
$160/$140 or casual classes $20/$17 

Contact:
9670 2997

I now view my life in two parts: before I met the yogi and after I met the yogi. Or perhaps before I heard of his legend and after I heard of his legend. ‘Yoga with a yogi stronger than cobra venom' pinged through to Three Thousand's inbox last week.

Now we all knew this was serious. I knew that cobra venom attacks the central nervous system. It induces paralysis. Progresses to cardiovascular collapse. Coma. Then death due to respiratory failure. What I didn't know and couldn't believe possible was that someone had enough balls to laugh in the face of the cobra. And so the legend of the yogi rose amongst our studio to a level of badassery previously reserved for the few who laugh in the face of danger. Mark Wahlberg being one of them.

Before I went to meet Swami Prahlad I read that a yogi is someone who knows that the entire cosmos is situated within his own body. Prahlad has the entire cosmos situated within his own body. At his most intense, this man trained for 16 and a half hours every day! He ain't no gym yoga instructor. Yoga is no fad to him. This is the real deal.  

We'll start off with the story of the cobra attack.
I was not attacked by a cobra, I got my food spiked by a couple of guys from India. The hospital a few days later said I was poisoned with cobra venom (he says it is just a rumour, I take it as fact). It did paralyse me for eight hours. They robbed me while I was lying there on the street.

What was it like? The eight hours?
It was very profound. I had to concentrate a lot. A few times I thought okay, now what? This is it. I am going to die. And I hope I'm going to die because I am bored here. It was very strong...if I hadn't done all my yoga practice I think I would have gone a bit nuts.

I thought there was a breathing technique that you used?
I did. Inhaling through the nose (demonstrates) and exhaling through the mouth (demonstrates). I couldn't actually move. I thought a few times that if I just relaxed that I would stop breathing so I had to concentrate on breathing. I was only in a small town, I was on a side street by the time I collapsed around 9pm. Things started to come back at 5am and I managed to hobble back to the hotel...I had to then do a nine hour drive to the hospital in Dehli. They gave me anti-venom and morphine, which was pretty good.

Wow.
But then two days later everything was accelerated. I felt like my heart was going to burst. So then I had to slow my breathing down. It was very intense.

Wow!
And it happened to be as I slid down the wall, when I collapsed, lying in the filth of India I got antibiotic-resistant Golden Staph. Back in Australia I started getting really sick. I went to the Alfred Hospital and they kept me for seven days.

How long until you got back in to teaching?
Only last week. I spent three weeks at home with a pick line going in to my heart and then I thought well I have done the Western thing, now I'll do what I know. So I fasted for seven days. It cooked everything out of my body.

So now that you're back, can you tell us about the weekend workshop you are doing?
I do these workshops a couple of times a year. It is a basic workshop introduction to this style (Sakshin Ghatstha Yoga) of yoga. The thing that makes it good for the West is that it's graded. You can systematically progress through. The workshop is different from the classes because you can expand on things.

The key is to flush heat and energy through the system and that way you make everything healthy. It's about stimulating the nervous system. And it's about learning that each breath has its place for that hour and a half. That way it becomes what yoga should be - a meditation in action. A lot of people do things for the future, "Six months from now I'll be flexible!" It needs to be used more as an immediate thing. How do I feel today? A bit stressed. You do the yoga practice. That thing that was bothering you is ironed out.

(He pauses to drink his American berry drink, which he makes himself.)

My style is a strong, dynamic style. With all these styles of Hatha Yoga, some are more so dynamic and others are less so. Some people are more prone to being quick at movement and light on their hands and feet. Other people they're more quiet or, you know, withdrawn - they do the more internal style of practice and it sits with their constitution more. There are many ways to go about it. Depending on the individual we tailor the way that they practice it to fit exactly with them.

It sounds intense.
Once you understand the principles it is actually not that complicated...this is where people go wrong with lots of things, not just yoga. They think about things too much without doing it. If you just do things without thinking too much you do things and then think what was all the fuss about? Don't worry about things. Life keeps happening. Life is a path. You are never on it you are always following it.  

Is it all about discipline? To be honest, discipline freaks me out.
Discipline is a very badly understood thing in this world. You are a young person and you are freaked out by the concept of discipline. People see it as a negative thing. Punishment. But discipline comes from the word 'disciple'. It's about being so into something that you're giving whole heartedly of yourself to this thing. It's about being total about something. Everybody has to find out what their discipline is basically. Somebody can run a marathon, another person can run 200 metres and say they are knackered. They will be labeled by a person watching as lazy. But that person who ran the marathon, that's his potential! Get him to dismantle a bomb and he has no potential there. Or whatever. Everybody has their potential. Comparing yourself to other people is rubbish. Neither is more or less than any of the others.

Thank you. This has been amazing.