Narada (Tony Sugden)
Narada originally trained in bioscience and then spent fifteen years in business computer systems trouble-shooting and analysis. He went on to study, practice and teach Chinese Medicine for over twenty years, treating a lot of musculo-skeletal disorders in that time. His knowledge of anatomy and physiology has informed his understanding of Yoga asana and freedom of movement.
"Freedom of movement" was the definition of Yoga that he used when he was asked to share his âexercise methodâ in Eastern Zambia, where Narada spent many years travelling back and forth, and where no-one had heard of Yoga. This definition applies to both physical movement and to thoughts and emotions, for those who also want to learn meditation. Narada sees Yoga truly as Universal, applying to all human beings, not any particular culture.
Narada's journey
An encounter with the Bhagavad Gita at age 14, just after having the stark realisation that one day he would die, set Narada on the spiritual path. Then, while at University, he met Swami Jyotirmayananda of Bihar School of Yoga. A brilliant, dynamic teacher who laid down the foundations for Narada back in 1969, and then encouraged Narada to teach Yoga at Surrey University.
His next teacher was a âpopulistâ guru from India, from whom he learned discipline and focus. It was in India Narada had his first taste of ashram life and diving deep into meditation. Realising that âspiritual experienceâ is not everything (we live in the world after all), Narada wondered how to find a perspective in daily life that doesnât involve being swept this way and that by the vagaries of mind and emotions once no longer in meditation?
Narada's third teacher was, and is, Swami Nishchalananda Saraswati, to whom he feels he owes everything that has unfolded for him in the last decade. Narada lived at Mandala Yoga Ashram and undertook the two year training course to become a certified Yoga teacher, but feels his most significant learning experience here came from the unspoken wisdom that a true teacher can impart.
Narada has studied most of the techniques and âframeworks of understandingâ taught in the Bihar school tradition - Pratyahara, Tattwa Shuddhi, Prana Vidya and the Kriyas, as well as the systems of the Chakras and the Koshas. These days he has an affinity for the practices of the Vigyana Bhairava Tantra as translated and taught by Swami Nishchalananda, but also for the Zen approach, and over the last six or so years, the âDirect Pathâ, an approach originating from Sri Atmananda Krishnamenon, Ramana Maharshi and Sri Nisargadatta. Narada has an immense gratitude for all his teachers.
