Service as a Peace Practice

Amy Shimshon-Santo (AS²): This is Inheritance of Peace and I’m Amy Shimshon-Santo. In this episode, we enjoy a conversation with Pranidhi Varshney. She is a mother of three, and the founder of Yoga Shala West, an accessible Ashtanga Yoga space, where people seek balance through the daily practice of “skill in action.” Having immigrated to the midwestern U.S. as a child from India, she’s become an expert at swimming between the poles of here and there, motherhood and community life, personal awareness and being a part of positive change. Her Inheritance of Peace draws from yoga philosophy, Gandhian principles, and the example set by her parents. How can we cultivate joy in our relationships while being of service? How can even our strongest actions be guided by love?

AS²: We’ll just hop right in. The first question is, who are you?

Pranidhi Varshney (PV): Who am I? The ultimate question.

AS²: Exactly.

PV: My name is Pranidhi Varshney. I live here in Los Angeles and hail from India, originally. I was born there, and moved to the states when I was about six. I made my way to California, and I love it here.

AS²: Right on. You knew how to drop in.

PV: Who am I? Yeah. That’s who I am. It’s interesting. In our culture, in the Indian culture, we rarely define ourselves by who we are in a solo context. Even what we call each other is always relational. Except for my children, I call them by their names. I usually just call them by their pet names, or sweetheart or something. But when you’re a child in my culture, you’re always referring to everybody by their titles, not by their names.

“In our culture, the Indian culture, we rarely define ourselves by who we are in a solo context. Even what we call each other is always relational. Along with the relational aspect, respect is a really big part of Indian culture. Respect for the elder. Everybody elder to you has a title, including siblings. We use those words auntie and uncle to refer to anyone outside your actual family who is older to you. My parents’ friends, I call them all aunties and uncles. In that way, the sense of community continues to broaden.”

AS²: What are examples of that?

PV: My sister’s name is Navya, but my children do not call her Navya, or even Auntie Navya. They call her Mausi which means mom’s sister.

AS²: Oh!

PV: We have names for our mom’s brother. I don’t have any brothers, but even my cousins would be referred to as my brothers, so they would call them a certain name. And then from my husband’s family, there’s a certain title for each person. So that’s how my culture, as Indian culture, is. It’s very, very relational.

AS²: Wow, I love to hear what the actual titles are. Sometimes the titles let us know. Not all family relationships in every culture are not always named. What are some of the other titles?

PV: Well, that’s interesting, because I’m thinking now in Indian culture, there’s never a title for any child. Along with the relational aspect, respect is a really big part of Indian culture. Respect for the elder. Everybody elder to you has a title, including siblings. I have three children. My older daughter, middle son, and then my youngest daughter, who’s just turned one. She doesn’t speak yet, but my middle son obviously speaks. He’s almost five, and he calls my older daughter, not by her name usually, but by the honorific, which is Didi, which means older sister. Anyone older to you generally has a title, and anyone younger to you generally does not.

AS²: You’re a student. You’re learning. Oh, I love that. One of the ways that language is so important is it weaves us together in social relations. You can’t just translate everything. I have friends who have said, if you lose a language you lose the social relations because you don’t have a name for it. It’s not just auntie or uncle. It’s very specific relationships that matter.

PV: In our culture, something else is cool too. You said auntie and uncle, so it’s reminding me that auntie and uncle, we use those words quite often, but they are used to refer to anyone outside your actual family who is older to you. My parents’ friends, I called them all aunties and uncles. In that way, the sense of community continues to broaden.

AS²: Yes.

PV: My children call my sister Mausi, I call my mom’s sisters Mausies.

AS²: Nice. Oh, I love it. Beautiful, beautiful.

PV: It is funny that when you asked me who I was, I was so American about it. This is my name. This is where I live. This is where I’m from.

AS²: That’s the way it is.

PV: But this is constantly how I feel. It’s sort of balancing between these two poles. Since being a child, and an immigrant child, that’s kind of just how we swim. Between these two poles.

AS²: That’s how we swim. That is exactly how we swim, and it’s a real benefit. It’s a tremendous benefit. Because in every language and every culture comes all this knowledge and a worldview. And if you can see things from more than one perspective. you have twice as much to pull from, or three times as much, or more. So I’m a real fan of that. But we learn in school, and we learn in society, to edit that part out and leave it at home. Even though it’s so valuable.

PV: Do you think it’s still that way?

AS²: Do you?

PV: Well, the reason I ask is I noticed that in my children’s education, they’re so encouraged to bring their cultures. There’s really a sense that we’re all part of something here and we’re all bringing our unique perspectives. There’s a real sense of belonging. I know that not all schools have that, but I feel blessed that we do. I see such a big change, even from when I was growing up. So I was curious.

AS²: I love that you defended that thought. For me and for my grown children, it was definitely not like that. It felt like an aspirational idea. Something you had to create. Oftentimes we would go do the cultural events at school so that the teachers or administration knew where to begin, and then welcome other people into that process. But it was kind of a homemade feeling of trying to bring the home culture into the school space. So I’m really glad that it doesn’t feel quite as divergent for your kids. Because you want to be whole.

PV: Yeah. Of course.

AS²: That’s good news. What do you get to do with your life force? Sometimes this changes over time.

PV: I get to do lots of things. I get to do the laundry, I’m sitting here in my laundry room, so that’s what I’m thinking about. I haven’t pulled those clothes yet. I get to do a lot of laundry folding. I get to do a lot of cooking. I have three children.

AS²: That sounds to me like a Buddhist response.

PV: But I also get to teach yoga and hold space. I get to be a wife. I get to go swimming sometimes, ride my bike sometimes, while I listen to music (riding) down the LA River. I feel like I have a pretty great life. When I remember that I do. I think that’s the challenge. It’s easy to drop into places of negativity. But when someone is posing me the gift of a question like “what do I get to do with my life?” I really think about it. Wow, I get to do pretty cool stuff.

AS²: Did you choose what you’re doing, what you get to do with your life? Parenting and running a yoga shala. Mentoring people. Creating your family. Being a partner.

PV: Part of me wants to say, yes, I consciously chose all these things. But I don’t know if I believe that we have as much agency as we think over the way in which we point our rudders. How we direct ourselves. I think our agency is more in how we are wherever we find ourselves. The way in which we carry ourselves. The way we respond to the stimuli that are given to us. I think real wisdom is knowing that. I’m not coming from a high and mighty place. It’s been energy trying to direct the course of my life. But I think the times that I’m most fulfilled, most at peace, happiest, when I can really love where I am. And whatever challenges I find myself in, change how I’m showing up in those challenges. It’s not like we don’t have to make choices in our lives. We have to choose. Am I gonna go this way or that way? But, when I was younger, I think there was a lot more will involved. Like through force of will, where am I gonna steer the ship?

“I think our agency is more in how we are wherever we find ourselves. The way in which we carry ourselves. The way we respond to the stimuli that are given to us. I think real wisdom is knowing that. As I’ve gotten older, I am trying to find the stream a bit more and follow that. Where am I needed? Where can I be of service? Where do the skills that I have align with what the world needs?

As I’ve gotten older, I am trying to find the stream a bit more and follow that. Where am I needed? Where can I be of service? Where do the skills that I have align with what the world needs, and how can I follow that?

AS²: My momentum is associated with everything around me that I’m a part of.

PV: Yeah. It’s taken me some time to get there. I was a very rebellious teenager in some ways. I was like, I’m gonna break out of this container that I feel like I’ve been placed in. I broke out of it, but then one has to deal with the consequences of that. It took me a while to deal with the consequences of those decisions that I made. There were times when I felt unhappy with where I ended up. But, I look around and there’s so much beauty. There’s so much beauty, and there’s so much joy. I have these three beautiful children.

Now that I’m thinking about it, decision-making in my life is less about spreadsheets and charts and things like that, and more of an inner sense of knowing. That’s been a very constant thing, and not everybody makes decisions that way. My husband certainly doesn’t, but I feel like that’s how I make decisions, big decisions, in my life. It’s through this really strong feeling that just comes up. All of a sudden my life is moving in a certain way. When that feeling comes up, I do have a strong will that helps me get over the finish line.

“Decision-making in my life is less about spreadsheets and charts and things like that, and more of an inner sense of knowing. It’s through this really strong feeling that just comes up. All of a sudden my life is moving in a certain way. When that feeling comes up, I do have a strong will that helps me get over the finish line.”

AS²: I’m a fan of strong will when you feel clear. You opened up as a child of immigrants. Family has been important to me. This is how family is related to community. I’m a part of running a household and mothering and parenting.

You’re a yoga mentor, and you guide your own space, and you do it in a way that’s really different than probably some listeners might imagine a yoga space to be.

I’m curious if there’s anything you want to say about when you said you were a rebel. How did the rebel wind up in this extreme contemplative practice of Ashtanga yoga?

PV: The decade in which I grew up, which is the 90s, we grew up with a sense that we could do anything, especially as women. We were gonna be girl bosses, and we could do anything. We were very ambitious. And in Indian culture, also, there’s a lot of ambition. There’s a lot of ambition in striving and wanting to excel at whatever we’re doing. When I was growing up, that was mostly showing up in an academic setting. When I was growing up at home. I just decided I didn’t really want to do that, and so I went into the arts. I went in a different direction. But there was still a part of me that was ambitious, and that wanted to achieve.

As I was going through college, my career was sort of diffuse as an artist. You know. Yoga came along and I was really lucky to find Ashtanga yoga pretty quickly when I started practicing. There was such a clarity to it. There’s a clarity, and a direction, and not having to think too much about which way you’re going and what you’re gonna do, but you just show up on the mat, and you do that. And there’s just this forward momentum.

And as we practice longer, we realize it’s not all about going forward. But at the beginning, that was really helpful to me. The clarity. The discipline that I could channel on the mat. That’s how I found my way to the practice. But interestingly, in the course of that I became changed by it. If you’re doing it right, the practice will change you. Refine you.

I had to get clear about what I was doing with my life. Certain things started to feel out of alignment, and actually my whole career in the arts started to feel out of alignment. I turned to the thing where I felt aligned and that was the yoga mat. That was wanting to create a space for people where they could also feel that sense of alignment. What I mean is not physical alignment, but balance.

AS²: Yeah. So, in your artistic career, were you singing?

PV: I was singing. I was acting. I was going wherever the work was. That’s what you have to do as an artist. That career and lifestyle change brought me here to California. I grew up in Michigan, after moving from India, and spent some time in Chicago. Then I came here to California.

It was here that I really started delving deeper into the yoga practice, and where I started to feel that if I’m really going to give my all to something I need to give my all to that thing. Rather than feeling beholden to different directions.

AS²: I wanted to ask one little question about your vision of the space that you create as a yoga teacher and mentor. It feels really different than any other yoga space I’ve ever been in. And I wonder if that came from something you witnessed in your life somewhere else, or if you just made that up?

PV: Oh, no, no. I didn’t make it up. I feel like we don’t really make up much. Everything is an inheritance. I had a sense, having spent many years in this city, I felt like people were just getting priced out of the practice. To put it simply. I just felt like monthly fees were, for some people, completely out of reach. People who want to have a dedicated practice just couldn’t do it. Or they had to do with the shame of going to the teacher, and can I get a discount, or whatever it is, you know? That feels icky.

I thought, well, if I’m gonna start something, then let me see how I can make it accessible. We developed this sliding scale, or flexible contribution model. An organization called Service Space was pretty instrumental in helping me develop it. Nipun Mehta is the leader of this organization. My husband met him through meditation practice. I got to meet him, and learn about his work. He’s traveled the world. He basically espouses Gandhian principles.

It makes sense that we’re talking about this since this podcast is called Inheritance of Peace. That was Gandhi’s whole thing. Nonviolence and living a life of service. This organization inspires people to live lives of service. I did a little incubator with them, and they helped me. That was right around when I was designing the model of the shala (śālā, Skt: शाला). Outside of even helping me design the nuts and bolts, just having that framework of, okay, there are people designing organizations like this. There are people trying to do things outside of a transactional quality. That’s what you feel. At the Shala, we gotta pay our rent. I’m keeping track of students’ fees and all that. But, from a broader sense, it’s an understanding that this is not a transactional relationship. We’re gonna try to operate outside those parameters.

AS²: Beautiful.

PV: Being from India, I don’t have rose-colored glasses on when I talk about India. It’s a real place, just like any other real place. I imagine back in the day when yoga was being taught in caves, it was not transactional. But now? Even if you look at our specific lineage, it costs money. I think that this transactional quality is perhaps more of a Western thing, but I think it’s the commodification that’s more of a Western thing. It’s not that money wasn’t always a part of it. What I saw when I was practicing in LA is there’s a yoga space, but then there’s the boutique outside that’s selling $500 clothes. That just feels so unnecessary. I didn’t want to have anything to do with that particular aspect of it.

AS²: That’s amazing. So you mentioned Michigan, Los Angeles, California, India. My next question is, what lands are you connected to?

PV: I think those. Those are the lands that I feel connected to. Each one has its own quality. I think each one has shaped who I am in its own specific way. I also feel really connected to the ocean. I love the water.

AS²: I’m curious about weather and food in these places.

PV: Oh, yeah. Food is a big one. We love food in India and that’s the best part about going to India. The food is amazing. I’m really fortunate that my mom is such a wonderful cook. She brought all that when we were young. I’m doing my best to pass it on. I spend a lot of my time in the kitchen. I’m doing my best to pass it on to my kids. It’s also amazing living here in California. One of our weekly rituals is to go to our local farmer’s market every single Sunday. It’s such a gift to live in a place where there’s this abundance, fresh abundance that we can turn into sustenance. I love it. My kids also love it. It is kind of like going to church for us. We go every week, and we get to see the seasons change in that way. We had our first taste of cherries last week so now we’re like, okay, it’s the start of stone fruit season! These little things help cultivate joy in our kids’ lives. This understanding of the cycle of life. That things change, things come back around. Things change, things come back around.

“One of our weekly rituals is to go to our local farmer’s market. I love it. My kids also love it. We get to see the seasons change in that way. These little things help cultivate joy in our kids’ lives. This understanding of the cycle of life. That things change, things come back around.”

AS²: Beautiful. Love that. Okay, so let’s turn to the big question of the day. And, this can be very personal, it could also be ancestral a bit, because all of us are coming from something. What would you say is your Inheritance of Peace?

PV: I love that question. Ever since you mentioned the name of this podcast I’ve been thinking, what a cool question. Cool inquiry. And the first place my mind went as I was just mulling things over was, of course, the Gandhian principles. The nonviolence that Gandhi changed the country with.

I’m thinking about yoga philosophy. In yoga philosophy there can be a sense, maybe from the outside looking in, that it’s a pacifist philosophy. It’s about doing nothing or doing less. That’s not it. My understanding is that it’s skill in action. How can we be skillful in every single action that we take? Oftentimes, we do have to take strong action. But how can we take strong action with love?

“In yoga philosophy there can be a sense, from the outside looking in, that it’s a pacifist philosophy. It’s about doing nothing or doing less. That’s not it. My understanding is that it’s skill in action. How can we be skillful in every single action that we take? Oftentimes, we do have to take strong action. But how can we take strong action with love?”

I think about that with my kids, too. Being a good parent is not just letting your kids walk off the edge of a cliff. You gotta hold the line sometimes, but you gotta do it with love.

Inheritance from my country, from this yoga philosophy. But on a more intimate level, my inheritance of peace comes from my parents. My mother, when we were growing up. My sister and I would go do these service projects here and volunteer there. We were teenagers. We would sometimes act, to be honest, real shitty at home. We’d be “doing good” out in the world, but then come home and just blah. She said to us, what’s up with that, basically? I don’t remember exact words, but basically, what’s up with that? There are plenty of opportunities to serve here in our home. That has always stuck with me. I think it’s so true.

We, especially now, in a day and age where we can be connected to everything that’s happening in any extremity of the world. I have to constantly remind myself. How can I serve at home? How can I serve in my household, in my community, in the relationships that I have access to?

The reason I think that that is my inheritance of peace is that that is how we spread peace. How we are. Who we are. How we behave. How we move through our daily lives. To me, that’s how we make a change. Those ripples.

“I have to constantly remind myself, how can I serve at home? How can I serve in my household, in my community, in the relationships that I have access to? I think that is my inheritance of peace. That is how we spread peace. How we are. Who we are. How we behave. How we move through our daily lives. That’s how we make a change. Those ripples.”

I talked about my mom, but my dad is the perfect embodiment of that. While I was growing up, he spent almost all of his time taking care of us. My mom did, too. But, people don’t always expect that of fathers. He really did. They both worked full-time. They provided for our family financially. Outside of that time, they were just there for us. I think even on a subconscious level. That level of caretaking, I internalized it. That’s probably why I find myself in caretaking roles now. I feel that’s my inheritance.

AS²: It’s really powerful to hear this connection you’re expressing between caretaking and service. Because somehow in the home, we’re expected to have family values, but what happens in the home isn’t really supported socially with our institutions. It’s kind of luck, to a certain extent, what you fall into. All the things one might need for sustenance at home, a lot of those things are being cut right now. It’s beautiful for me to be reminded today of your mother’s lesson. That’s a form of service, everything you do. You’re raising the next generation. You’re affecting the energy and experience of your family members, your neighbors, and the people who are known to you. There’s no kind of change that will happen unless we also are being attentive there. That’s really powerful.

PV: Yeah. It can also inform the work we do out in the world. Not that there’s always a binary, but we do tend to think of our home lives and the work we do outside of home. I also experience that binary. I often think, how do I want my kids growing up? How do I want them to be in the world? That helps inform what I do, and what I engage with.

I’m very careful with my attention and where I put it. I find if I put my attention too far outside, I tend to feel frayed. Part of what the yoga practice has given me is an ability to tap into how things are affecting me. The quality of awareness. I need to be careful with where my attention is going. If I can find ways to serve that are really impactful, that are really affectual, then do those things. There’s a more balanced way in which to approach these things. It comes from a sense of inner balance.

“We tend to think of our home lives and the work we do outside of home. I also experience that binary. I often think, how do I want my kids growing up? How do I want them to be in the world? That helps inform what I do and what I engage with. I’m careful with my attention and where I put it. The yoga practice has given me an ability to tap into how things are affecting me. The quality of awareness.”

AS: Inner balance. Which is the thing nobody has. And I don’t mean nobody. That’s definitely what I feel in your space, and the practice asks of us. It’s so fascinating to say, I will change myself. I will change how I’m showing up. That is part of the change of any other larger change or different kinds of changes I wish. And, without that, it probably won’t happen.

PV: I don’t think that peace can be achieved through hate. I just don’t believe that. In my husband’s culture, in Sikh culture, there’s this concept of the saint-soldier. Sometimes you have to cut something down, but you cannot do it from hate. You have to do it from love. Not cruelty. Cruelty cannot be the way.

We have to sometimes hold the line for what is right and good. But rarely does that happen when we ourselves are mired in misery. Sometimes, these days, I feel like we take on misery as a virtue.

Instead, we might allow our awareness of everything that’s going on in the world to actually do the opposite and fill us with gratitude. Fill us with gratitude for what we do have, and the wonderful blessings that we might have around us. Then use that sense of gratitude to make some kind of change.

War has been a part of our history since we began…

“Peace can not be achieved through hate. Sometimes you have to cut something down, but you cannot do it from hate. You have to do it from love. Not cruelty. Cruelty cannot be the way.”

AS²: So, the Bhagavad Gita, does touch on this stuff. Somehow in facing difficult things, if I’m not mistaken, it’s supposed to help us become who we are.

PV: It’s forging the sword. The Gita does have this violent context. It’s a story about staying true to one’s purpose within this context of difficulty and challenge and questioning. Question: Am I doing the right thing? Am I on the right path? Having that unwavering resolve. I should say, not having it, finding it. Finding that unwavering resolve. Which some people might call faith.

“The Bhagavad Gita does have this violent context. It’s a story about staying true to one’s purpose within this context of difficulty and challenge and questioning. Question: Am I doing the right thing? Am I on the right path? Having that unwavering resolve. I should say, not having it, finding it. Finding that unwavering resolve. Which some people might call faith.”

AS²: I’m always saying to parents, replace your worry with faith. It’s more useful. It’s a more useful energy. Not naivete, but devotional faith. Not everyone has studied yoga philosophy or Gandhian principles. I just wondered if there’s anything in particular in yogic philosophy, when it comes to thinking in a deep way, in an empowering way about peace. In a strong way about peace as a powerful force.

PV: We were talking about the Gita. I think the Gita is the ultimate text. In the context of this battle one finds this sense of faith. But that’s just one yogic text. There are a lot.

We can talk about the Yoga Sutras also (Patañjali yogasūtram, पतञ्जलि योगसूत्रम्). They are more practice-oriented. For people who are wanting a sense of, how can I do this practice? Or what are the philosophical underpinnings of this practice? There’s a lot there in the Yoga Sutras. We’re talking about all these principles.

The yamas and niyamas. This is exactly what we’ve been talking about this whole time. How do you show up with yourself? How do you show up with your relationships? Simplicity. Humility. Putting the ego aside. Not grasping unnecessarily.

All these concepts are there in what we call Ashtanga Yoga, the 8-limbed path. It’s a contemplative path. It takes on many forms. But it’s also not unique to yoga philosophy. These are the teachings of any faith system that we’ve cultivated as humans. Each one has its own shimmer to it. But we’re all trying to do the same stuff. We’re all trying to figure out, how do we move through this life in a meaningful way?

AS²: And somehow leave it a little bit better, if possible.

PV: Exactly.

AS²: In your space, you have the big beautiful red image of the different limbs with the yamas and the yamas on the bottom. I always think, do do this and don’t do that. You can get yourself in a lot of trouble. It’s very hard to undo a lot of bad doing.

PV: That’s right.

AS²: In addition to doing the good things, you want to limit the things that are gonna make your life more of a mess.

PV: Yep.

AS²: A lot of them are very social. Don’t harm someone.

PV: Yeah, exactly.

AS²: Tell the truth, and don’t harm someone.

PV: Yeah.

AS²: Even the threads to principles of the MeToo Movement, even those kinds of guides are in these old principles. I guess human beings have been “being human” for a long time.

PV: Yeah. It’s helpful to have these guidelines. It’s helpful to have a sense of structure around our behavior. And as we get more steeped, and more wise, we understand that there’s a lot of nuance there also.

AS²: In the to-dos. Don’t lose your momentum. Keep that fire going. Stick with the divine. It’s just very fascinating. The way you have them laid out, they’re on either side so it’s almost like your left arm and your right arm.

PV: They have to work in conjunction.

AS²: I’m so glad that you’ve made time to step away and reflect a little bit about this. I’m always learning something new, and I love the whole conversation from how we call ourselves, how we name family relations and community relations.

This is an old heritage. What you’re building on in your choice to focus on yoga as part of your service didn’t start recently. This is a lot older than the United States.

PV: Yeah.

AS²: How old do you think this tie goes back in terms of a base?

PV: We can go really far back, because ultimately, this is a breath practice. As humans, how we know a baby is okay is they cry. They cry because it’s the first breath that they ever take. Breath is foundational to our human experience. On the yoga mat, we’re harnessing our breath. Sure, we’re putting our body into these different shapes and stuff. But really, we’re harnessing our breath. Harnessing the breath started, who knows when. These practices probably go back beyond our conceptual understanding.

AS²: Of humankind.

PV: In a way, that ancestry belongs to all of us. It doesn’t just belong to me, because I grew up in India. No, I think it belongs to all of us.

AS²: All of us homo sapiens, doing the breathing thing. And all the other animals who are breathers.

PV: We do have this unique ability to direct our breath. We have a conscious agency over our breath. It feels like something uniquely powerful.

AS²: Yeah. Thank you so much for being a part of this big web of peacemaking that’s also claiming the ground of heritage. We have something to pull from to try to make our lives better, and to intentionally do the best that we can in a fulfilling way with our life force. Is there any last little thing you might like to share before we wrap up?

PV: Hmm. Maybe I should do a little chant?

AS²: Yes.

PV: Ohm. [Pranidhi chants a yoga mantra.] This mantra is about cultivating a sense of fullness and wholeness. And of course, we always end with Om Shanti, Shanti, Shanti which is Peace, Peace, Peace.

ॐ पूर्णमदः पूर्णमिदं पूर्णात्पुर्णमुदच्यते ।

पूर्णस्य पूर्णमादाय पूर्णमेवावशिष्यते ॥

ॐ शान्तिः शान्तिः शान्तिः ॥

Om Puurnham-Adah Puurnham-Idham Puurnnhaat-Purnham-Udachyate

Puurnnasya Puurnham-Aadaaya Puurnnameva-Avashissyate

Om Shaantih Shaantih Shaantih, Hari Om.

That is whole (Infinite), This is whole (Finite).

From that wholeness, this wholeness comes forth.

If you take away the whole from the whole.

The whole remains.

Om Shanti Shanti Shanti: Om Peace, Peace.

Pranidhi Varshney: Pranidhi is the founder of this little shala that could. The teacher who has had the most impact on her is Manju Jois. She has also studied with Nancy Gilgoff, Sharath Jois, and several other teachers within the ashtanga yoga lineage. Her children, courageous and wise little beings, teach her most of all. The thread that runs through all her work is the desire to nurture community, authenticity, and balance.

* Pranidhi’s YouTube Channel

* Pranidhana Album on Spotify

* Pranidhi’s Writing

* Eight Limbs Graphic

Yoga Shala West is an autonomous and interdependent community of ashtanga yoga practitioners in the heart of West Los Angeles.

Additional Resources:

Service Space is a volunteer-run ecosystem incubating compassionate action. For 26 years, our small, collective acts are powered by a simple idea: when we change ourselves through service, we change the world.

Eknath Easwaran, Classics of Hindu Classics of Indian Spirituality: Includes: The Bhagavad Gita, The Dhammapada, and The Upanishad.

This interview has been edited and condensed. Subscribe to Inheritance of Peace with Amy Shimshon-Santo on Apple Podcasts or on substack at Warm Blooded Mammal With Hair. Theme music for this program is by Avila Santo. This series highlights everyday people from across the generations and various walks of life —poets, researchers, shepherds, healers — who discuss our Inheritance of Peace as foundational for a just society.

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