Let me start with saying that when I first started this project, I never imagined what a challange it would be. If I had, I'm not sure I would have undertaken it at all - not because I wouldn't have wanted to do it, but because I wouldn't have believed it possible. I wasn't planning, exactly, to start an international business. I just had a thought that my yoga class repertoire would make a great video course.
That's how it all started - I was a kundalini yoga teacher, and a lazy one at that ;). I didn't want to spend too much time preparing each class, so I began to create pre-planned practices to save myself time. And as it turned out, I was really good a that. It is not so easy to create a deep yoga experience. You need to have knowledge of a wide range of kriyas & meditations, and then combine them together in a way that makes sense. Trouble is, very little is actually known about most of those sets, and you need to use your intuition to figure out what fits where. Fortunately, I was blessed with an innate understanding of "what fits where". I could connect mentally with the energy of each kriya, feel the space in consciousness it leads to, and tell how to combine it with other elements to create a special experience. This not only helped me in my career as a yoga teacher; it has also deepened my personal practice, allowing me to use tools provided by yoga in a very conscious manner to facilitate my growth.
Kriyas & meditations simply popped together in my mind to form complete practices. Practices grouped themselves in modules, and modules arranged themselves in certain order. All the while, I didn't realise what was happening; I happily used this growing list as my "teaching plan". Now, I call this list Journey with Kundalini Yoga.
I don't quite recall when I first thought of transforming my teaching repertoire into a video course. It was a long process that resulted half from frustration of being stuck in an unhealthy environment, and half from desire to create something impactful and beautiful. First I envisioned the JKY course, and then it all came tumbling down my mind: ideas for other courses started to appear, and the live class programme emerged.
When all those ideas came, I was very excited and I really wanted to make it all happen. I also had absolutely no idea what I was doing. I had no business plan, no technical know-how; I didn't even imagine half of what this project would entail. I just blundered along, solving one issue at a time. One day I was writing some code for my website, another I was recording or editing videos. One day I was planning my platform's features, another pondering legal requirements or marketing strategies. Not to mention finding locations to shoot, worrying about permissions, translating my content; and at least a few dozen other things. To may dismay, there was surprisingly little yoga in the whole process. After some time, I got so sick of watching my own videos, that confronted with the next one to edit I wanted to vomit. Not at all how I imagined it.
And yet despite all the difficulties, I persevered. I think something broke within me; at some point I said to myself: I will finish this project, or I will die trying. Not that I wanted it so badly, you must understand. I am usually content with whatever life brings. I just didn't see another alternative, other than turning back to what I felt was no longer mine.
I would like to share a funny story - it wasn't so funny when it happened, if I am to be honest ;) - but it is funny now, and it shows the depth of dedication that this project required (and still does). So, here's how it goes:
We went for a day of shooting for the JKY course - me and my photography team. We had planned to shoot two videos in one day, in two locations very close to one another. So we went early in the morning, thinking that surely we would have enough time. We recorded the first practice without issues; even made an extra photo session on site. We ate lunch, and in good spirits we headed for the second spot. The second spot was a mountain.
Not a very big mountain, to be fair. We were told that we'd make the climb in 2 hours without issues. But still, it was 2pm already, so we had to be quick not to lose the light. And that was when trouble started. First of all, we had quite a lot of gear to carry, which slowed us down. Second of all, my photography team were hardly experienced mountaineers. About 20 minutes into the climb they were both red in the face and panting, still a long way from the top. The problem was, we couldn't just go slowly and take our time. Time was against us; we didn't want to reach the top only to find out that the light has gone, and our effort has been in vain. I do not have to add that rescheduling the shoot wasn't a very appealing option - not very appealing to my wallet, at the very least. And so we did our best to make good time, despite everything. Just when we reached the top, we ran out of water.
The climb took us longer than expected - over 3 hours - and we had to begin recording immediately for it to make any sense. So we set up in all haste, and we started. I tried to make the practice as concise as possible without compromising the quality, aware of the dimming light; but still, it wasn't enough. If you've been wondering why practice 9 ends in the night, with terrible visibility and a lot of grain in the image, you have your answer. We simply didn't make it in time - we were supposed to finish before dark. Still, I think it has its artistic appeal, and doesn't look as bad as I feared. Filming it wasn't very pleasant though. If you're a diligent observer (and if you've watched the damn thing, of course), you will have noticed that I'm a little bit shaky towards the end - I was so cold that I could no longer control my body; it was trembling whether I wanted it to tremble, or not.
The real drama started while going down though. As I mentioned, we had run out of water long since, so we were all parched, hungry, and weary to the bone. We were loaded with gear and hadn't brought any torches, so we stumbled down in the dark as pack mules, not being able to use our hands for support (phone for light in one, yoga mat and a tripod in the other). As a result we fell, and we fell miserably often. It is a miracle nobody sprained their ankle or something. There's always luck in stupidity. We made it down mostly unscathed, if dirty. And then, when we thought the worst was behind us, we got lost. No, I'm not kidding. The area in front of the mountain was littered with pathways that were complicated enough to navigate in daylight. In the dark, it was all but impossible. We wandered in circles, and when a walk that should take 15 minutes stretched to over an hour, our resolve has become tinged with despair. Finally, it was water that saved us.
Just after we had left the parking lot, we had crossed a ramshackle bridge - this we remembered. A bridge that run over a stream. When we were at a point of either panicking or giving up, we heard a very soft sound of running water. We still had enough wits about to go in that direction, and sure enough, we found the very same stream that we had crossed before. Locating the bridge in the dark was a little bit trickier, but finally we did it, and emerged out, absolutely disgusted with ourselves for having been such idiots. That day, I left home 6am and I returned 11pm, utterly exhausted. I spent the next two days lying in bed, recovering. But I did learn a thing - next time you go for a full day of shooting, do your planning properly - or suffer the consequences.
This is just one of the many things that didn't go as planned or intended. You could call me a fool, for trying to reach the Sun with a hoe (yes, we do have such a saying in Polish). But still, trying (and failing) has taught me a number of things; and hey, I'm opening the damn thing after all!
So, to wrap things up, let me tell you a little bit about our plans for the future. Currently we're focusing all our efforts on polishing the platform; improving the functionality of the website and correcting translations. Since we're officially starting sales, we also do a lot of marketing these days. We are still working on editing subtitles for our videos - if you are wondering, all the subtitles were generated & translated by an AI tool, and thus do need quite some polish.
When it comes to video courses, we never actually stopped working. We are already shooting the continuation of the JKY course - with the start of April 2024 we're planning to begin releasing 3 full practices each month. The Yoga Theory Course is paused for the moment; I have it all mapped out already, but with everything that's going on we're simply unable to confirm any date yet. Will let you know as soon as we know anything. And more courses are coming in the more distant future; currently, I'm having more ideas than I can go through with.
Regarding live classes, everything lies in your hands. We will adjust our offer to cater to the demand - we would love to offer 2-4 classes each day, with a variety of different teachers; but we're starting small and we'll see where it gets us.
There are also a number of features that we're looking to implement in the future, but that are still a little too distant to talk about in detail. It was my original vision for JKY course practices to include mantra music - and I intended to compose & produce all that music myself. This is still on the table, but will take much more time than was expected, and come more as an add-on than a mainline feature. If you don't like doing yoga with music, don't worry - there will be an option to turn it off. We would also love to create pdfs of all the kriyas & meditations that form part of the JKY course (with drawings of the exercises), so that you have a reference and can start practicing by yourself without the videos, if you wish to. And in even more distant future, lies a vision of publishing a book - several books, actually. We're also considering organising in-person retreats from time to time.
It is said that after successfully climbing a mountain, one realises that there is a thousand more mountains yet ahead to climb. That's a little bit how I feel about this project - it is only the beginning; who knows what it will become? But for now, I need some rest. A holiday, I think. I am exhausted; mentally more so than physically. I promise to take good care of myself; rest and recover, and then come back to you with more amazing stuff!
Thank you for following my journey, and take care.
With Love,
Harjeet
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