Bharata - Director of Yoga & Inner Peace
Bharata's teaching is characterized by a joyful, positive, can-do attitude. Whether you are new to yoga or an old-time, advanced student, Bharata's spirit and energy will take you beyond your self-imposed limitations. His classes are punctuated with the often repeated self-activating phrases, "Let go!" and "You can do it!" Somehow, he has that magical quality of making this happen!
In 1975, Bharata, who is 66 years old, began his yoga training at the Sivananda Yoga Center in Fort Lauderdale, Florida.
In February, 1977 he took his yoga teachers' training at the Sivananda Ashram Yoga Retreat on Paradise Island in the Bahamas. Over the following 16 years Bharata spent 14 years at the Retreat where he served in every capacity from cleaning bathrooms to directing the Retreat, from running and repairing the boats to helping teach the yoga teachers training courses. His teacher, Swami Vishnu Devananda taught that all staff should be able to do everything within the ashram and Bharata, like everyone else who stayed long enough, had his turn at cleaning bathrooms, maintenance, housekeeping, office work and a myriad of other chores which are necessary to keep an ashram running - each task giving a little different perspective on the real meaning of karma yoga or selfless service, the foundation of real spiritual discipline.
In the fall of 1981 Bharata was transferred to Geneva, Switzerland where he directed the Geneva Sivananda Yoga Center. During his stay in Europe, he also directed the Sivananda Yoga Center in Paris.
In the fall of 1983, Bharata returned to the Yoga Retreat where he remained until 1993.
In March, 1993, Bharata left the Retreat on an odyssey that took him from the Bahamas through Florida and around Europe. It was during these travels that he realized that he must dedicate his life to the continued propagation of yoga teaching and he must find a place to start a yoga center.
Returning to America in the spring on 1994, Bharata spent several weeks traveling around south Florida looking for the "right" place to open a center. When he first saw Yoga & Inner Peace's location on Lake Worth Road, he immediately knew, even though he really didn't know anyone in Palm Beach County, that this was the home for the new yoga center.
Yoga & Inner Peace was opened on June 18, 1994.
Bharata gives You Can Do It workshops at ashrams and yoga centers around the country. If you are interested in having Bharata come to your yoga center click here to send him an e-mail.
This video is what Bharata is all about: