A Message From Pearl

Why I am stopping Dharma Yoga classes  

As of January 2026, I will stop teaching Dharma Yoga and will be teaching only Gokul Yoga.  

I know plenty of you really like Dharma Yoga, have felt the benefits, and taken to heart Sri Dharma Mittra’s teachings.  I am glad that it has provided many of you with insight, growth, and depth to your yoga practice.   

While Dharma Yoga has been a part of my life for 15 years, my personal practice has been solely Gokul Yoga for the past 5 years, even while teaching Dharma Yoga.  Dharma Yoga’s concepts and teachings have always come easily to me; Gokul Yoga I have had to struggle with (and still do).  

And that is partly why I have chosen to pursue Gokul Yoga. It’s the cliched saying, “All growth starts at the end of your comfort zone.”    

“Growth”, “evolution”, “maturity” – call it whatever you like.  At the heart of it is Transformation.  This essentially means death or demise of the old/ former, so that the new can not only come into existence, but have the opportunity to flourish unhindered. 

CIKITSA vs SADHANA 

Then you think “but Dharma Yoga and Gokul Yoga, they’re both yoga anyway”.  Yes, they may be just different aspects and traditions of Yoga.  But it is precisely why if you want to grow, one has to choose. 

And truth be told, being part of a lineage (parampara) means you commit to it solely and are effectively responsible for its purity and succession. Otherwise, technically, there is no lineage – just a hodge-podge of a soup, a bastardization of Yoga as defined by those who realised and recorded it. Modern yoga practice fails to send this very important message. Yoga has strayed very far from how it is prescribed in the revered yoga manual written more than 2000 years ago, the Yoga Sutra by the sage Patanjali.  

When you practice Yoga for self-improvement, be it to lose weight, or get stronger or more flexible, or to de-stress, or even acquire knowledge, it is self-serving.  In Sanskrit, this is Yoga Cikitsa.  It’s not a bad/selfish thing per se, but ultimately Yoga Practice, or Yoga Sadhana, is quite a different animal. 

Yoga Sadhana is about entering into a specific yoga tradition.  There are principles of Guruhood and Studentship to observe, practice concepts, philosophy, etiquette, and principal literature to study.  Practice is shared and passed down via the prescribed way of oral tradition seated with sangha.  All for very specific and valid reasons, to preserve a bona fide yoga lineage. 

Gokul Yoga is one such lineage.  An unbroken disciplic succession of stalwarts fiercely protecting an undiluted body of knowledge. Sadhana is practice culture rooted in tradition, untarnished, deeply respectful of those who came before us, and potent through perspective, timelessness (avadh) and spiritual absorption (bhav). 

ADVAITA VEDANTA vs ACINTYA BHEDA ABHEDA 

As most of you know and have practiced, Dharma Yoga is all about offering your practice. It is described as Karma Yoga – yoga that is Action, performing acts of devotion. Its principles are rooted in Non-Dualism (Advaita Vedanta), based heavily on Buddhistic concepts, emphasized by the sage Adi Shankara; that Brahman (soul) is ever present, that there is an all-pervading reality, and that we are All in One.  The act of offering facilitates Self-realization (Brahman realization), merging the Self with an Impersonal Brahman (a formless Supreme).  This philosophy is predominantly Saivite (in the lineage of Shiva). Principal texts include Atma Bodha by Swami Nikhilananda, Patanjali’s Yoga Sutra and Sri Dharma Mittra’s own Life Of A Yogi. 

Gokul Yoga has its roots in Gaudiya Vaishnavism, a devotional tradition started by Caitanya Mahaprabhu more than 500 years ago.  Gokul Yoga is Buddhi Yoga, the act of thinking, feeling and willing via mind and body in order to realise our relationship with the Supreme.  The Supreme is a Personality with form, characteristics, moods, likes and dislikes.  Acintya Bheda Abheda (the Inconceivable Difference and Oneness), is the belief that the Supreme is one with us and yet separate from us, at the same time – “inconceivable”, independent from and beyond our limited ability to perceive and comprehend.  The Supreme is Visnu (Krsna), the Personaltiy of Godhead. Principal texts in Gokul Yoga are Bhagavad Gita As It Is, Srimad Bhagavatam and Caitanya Caritrmrta, ancient Sanskrit texts translated by AC Bhaktivedanta Swami Srila Prabhupada, founder acharya of the International Society of Krishna Consciousness, as well as the Yoga Sutra by Patanjali and Sankhya Karika by IsvaraKrsna. 

“YOU ONLY HAVE ONE CONSCIOUSNESS” 

This is what Gokulacandra Guruji told me.  It would have been a simpler matter if my vocation had nothing to do with Yoga.  The fact that I teach Dharma Yoga and my practice is Gokul Yoga, is duplicity.  My yoga practice and what I have to do for a living is unfortunately too close – the line dividing them is thin and blurry. 

Ultimately, I know that this is the next step to take, and more importantly so, in the right direction.  I feel very blessed to have a yoga and spiritual teacher, who has been so patient and at the same time demanding of me.    

As such, I hope to see all of you soon in Gokul Yoga class.  I only want to share Yoga as it is. 

Thank you for all your support. 

Pearl