Who is Dharma Mitra?
A few months ago, I had the great opportunity to do the Dharma Yoga Life of A Yogi Teacher Training with Sri Dharma Mittra himself. A few years ago, I met him at a workshop in Barcelona and was struck by his presence, his charisma, his energy and his yoga practice despite poor verbal communication in English.
He is not a great speaker, but his great experience of more than 50 years of practice, study of the scriptures and of course teaching in New York and throughout the world is evident. Yes, Dharma Mittra is over 70 years old, he was born in Brazil in 1939 and continues to teach in his studio in New York and doing a handstand on his head without hands among other advanced asanas.
On several occasions I was able to go to his classes at his center in the Big Apple and I was impressed by the number of students that fit in the room, the rigor (and also the difficulty) of the Dharma classes. I always remember her fit in Parivrtta parsvakonasana (the pose on the cover of my book “My Yoga Journal”, a deep twist where the upper shoulder should be opened in such a way that the two shoulders are vertically aligned, not easy!
According to what Adam Frei, the director of the Teacher Training program, told us, Dharma-ji began his training with his guru, Sri Swami Kailashananda known as Yogi Gupta in 1964 and learned with him living in his ashram dedicating himself to learning and karma yoga. (selfless work).
A teacher with more than 50 years of experience
He became “famous” for designing and creating a master yoga chart of 908 postures (from basic to advanced) as an offering to his Guru for all yoga aspirants. This original masterpiece was meticulously assembled from more than 1,350 photographs in an age without digital media and remains a visual reference for the variety of asanas that can be done, it exists in book format with 608 postures. Dharma Mittra offers a teacher training that focuses on Patanjali’s Eight Limbs of Ashtanga Yoga and nine forms of yoga. These trainings were designed based on years of practices that Sri Dharma (Sri or Shri is an honorary mark in Hindu culture) did to become a Yogi.. Each student is prescribed spiritual programs that will completely charge and change their entire life and help them become better, calmer and more content people. The essence of these ancient teachings is brought to life for each individual to use in this world of constant distraction and the results over the years have been miraculous.
Teacher training with Dharma-ji itself
I had already done several trainings and was looking for something else from the hand of a teacher who would inspire me, and I decided to go to New York in the middle of winter to do the 200h training with Dharma Mittra, an economic and time investment that has been worth it. Getting up every day at 5 a.m. to prepare my lunch pack and take the Brooklyn subway to Downtown Manhattan, spending the day sitting on the floor for theoretical and practical teaching, to return exhausted at 10 p.m. at night under 5 degrees has been a mental, energetic, physical and intellectual challenge, but feeling that you learn so much and that you live a unique and special experience allows you to overcome everything.
Dharma Mittra’s teacher training (his students have added “-Ji” to the end of his name as a mark of respect) is done in his own studio, you spend many hours with all 3 mentors plus Adam Frei, and every day It starts with half an hour of pranayama and a philosophical talk with Dharma-ji (his students have added “-ji” to the end of his name as a mark of respect), and then a 1h45 asana practice class with his regular students, it is a way of seeing the evolution also of physical practice with a strong and trained mind.
The training reference manual is titled “Life of a Yogi”and I still use it to prepare my classes, workshops and to write my yoga books. The yoga “sector” is a business where trainings multiply and choosing becomes a labyrinth of options. There are many of you asking me what training to do, but I can only answer and recommend the ones I have done and the ones organized by some teachers I know. That is why I chose, a safe option, that of a man recognized as an international teacher with extensive experience and who has trained hundreds or thousands of teachers, some of whom I have been able to meet throughout my 18 years of practice and student. Dharma Mittra inspires me/us and is a model of discipline, spirituality, authenticity,
