#19 Kamalesh Ginger Hooven: Exploring the Complementarities of Yoga & Ayurveda

The Healthy Peaceful Podcast

Join me as I interview Kamalesh Ginger Hooven regarding the relationship between Ayurveda and yoga. A Tennessee native, she currently lives in Guatemala (in the city of Antigua), where she has resided for decades. She is the proprietor of the successful restaurant, Café Condesa, and the Bed & Breakfast, Café San Juan. She teaches yoga and Ayurveda and hosts retreat groups at Cafe San Juan. For her 50th birthday, a friend inspired her to start a daily yoga practice. From there, she completed her 700-hour yoga teacher training with yogic scholar Georg Feuerstein and studied with yogi master Baba Hari Dass. She is a teacher of yoga and Ayurveda at Mount Madonna Center, a yoga ashram and intentional community located in Northern California.

Many individuals come to yoga for the asana practice and from there, become acquainted with Ayurveda. These sister sciences go back millennia. There is no separation between the two – both believe all of creation is composed of five elements. Yoga brings us to the recognition of true immortality. In India, all yogis were familiar with the basic principles of Ayurveda. All Vaidyas (Ayurvedic doctors) definitely knew yoga. Yoga and Ayurveda are complementarities. There are differences, however. Yoga is the seeking of liberation. Ayurveda is too, but the emphasis is creating the foundation of a healthy body and mind. The practices of yoga can be approached with a lot more austerity.

Kamalesh teaches advanced yoga studies currently via Zoom at Mount Madonna Center. In spite of the limitations imposed by the pandemic, she finds that there is a lovely cohort of spiritual seekers. “The space and time we have created are just that – creations – they are not reality. If I really believe that, I can go across space and time and check in.”

“And the mind in Ayurveda – we dedicate a lot of our time focusing on the state of our body – whether we feel healthy and energized. We don’t seem to mentor the state of our mind, at least in the U.S in the same manner. From an Ayurvedic and yogic perspective, how should we be thinking of our mind, how should we be shifting to balance and what tools do you consider important?” "Through yoga, we realize that our mind is not our thoughts, but is beyond thought. We come to realize we are not our thoughts, we are not our body, we are eternal wisdom. We often forget our original nature, however. Yoga and Ayurveda give us the tools to come back to a sattvic or balanced state.”

You can find Kamalesh and join her free yoga classes (currently Tuesdays and Thursdays) and peruse other free offerings on the Mount Madonna website: https://www.mountmadonna.org/online-offerings
You can also find links to her Zoom and YouTube yoga classes on her Casa San Juan website:
https://www.casasanjuan.com.gt/yoga.htm
Check out her YouTube Channel:
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCTmj-r5dBbEN0CfPT_48OSg

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Noreen