About Jai Gopal
Back around 2003, I found myself out of shape and unhappy. I was working a day job in real estate, writing and doing other creative arts on my off time, and most of all, partying way too much. I had fallen far from the high level of fitness I’d enjoyed throughout my time at West Point and as an army artillery officer. I remember looking in the mirror one day and thinking, “what happened to me?”
I had tried working out like I used to, but because of an injury, my back would go out whenever I lifted weights too hard. I was getting to the gym less and less. I tried yoga and that was helpful, but I was very self-conscious about doing yoga because as I wrongly thought back then, “yoga is mostly a women’s sport.” After that day when I looked myself in the mirror, I decided to do whatever it took to get back in shape. I decided that in addition to working out regularly, I would do a bunch more yoga classes but I just wouldn’t tell anyone, ha ha. After a short while I was hooked, because it worked so well. I could feel the flexibility in my body increasing. Moreover, my mind was much calmer at the end of class, which was a first for me! Regular fitness training can give you a strong body, but it does little to help the mind. You can be in the best physical shape of your life and feel great, but still be stressed out, full of anxiety, poverty minded, depressed and even flat out crazy.
Eventually I started doing yoga every day in addition to my regular workouts. With my new fitness program, I was getting back into shape for sure, but out of all the different types of yoga, kundalini yoga was calling me the most. I realize now that this was a date with destiny. I'd never experienced positive change so fast. I had read lots of self help books trying to change my habits, gain greater prosperity and improve my life, but it never moved me anywhere. I’d get excited reading the book but after a short while I was back where I started. Once I started doing Kundalini Yoga I could actually see my life changing for the better in real time. Self help books just promise you change with mere words and information. Kundalini Yoga gives you the real energy, in real time, to have the actual experience of change. That was a big “ah-ha moment.” I started practicing kundalini yoga more and more. Then something amazing happened. I met my teacher.
There’s a saying, “when the student is ready, the teacher will appear.” When I met my teacher everything really started to change. In the old days of this tradition, you would have to find a teacher, which was very difficult to begin with. Once you found a good teacher and he accepted you, which didn’t always happen, you would be with that teacher for many, many years. It was a journey of hard work, practice and many trials with the goal of getting the transfer of wisdom energy that only the master carries. The deep transformational wisdom that comes from going deeper and deeper with meditation can only be achieved through receiving teachings transmitted from a master. This is overwhelmingly lost in the west, even now with yoga studios on every corner. I am very grateful to have had the great good fortune to find a real teacher and despite all the pitfalls, to hang on as best I could, and to take the teachings for many years now.
I have been teaching since 2005. I’ve taught many, many classes, workshops and teacher trainings worldwide and the same is true as it’s always been: A student comes to you because they want to gain some sort of self mastery and to experience the energy of change, of going higher, of transformation. A student comes because they want to experience their own infinite energy. That can only be achieved by a student who practices regularly, with devotion, and has the guidance of a teacher who has experienced the path themselves. One teacher training certificate isn’t going to give you that. Welcome to my portal for sharing the teachings. I hope you are enriched by it.
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