Yogagaia tells the story of the universe

How did the universe begin? There are many answers to that question. The Big Bang theory. The Chinese diety Pan Ku, who hatched from a cosmic egg. The Judeo-Christian God, who in the beginning created the heavens and the earth.

With a practice she calls Yogagaia, KYTA member Hasita Agathe Nadai fuses movement and music with the story of how the universe came into being—a story told by science and informed by spirit. Drawing on her background as a biologist, geologist, and yoga teacher and practitioner, Hasita has developed a series of slow movements, a form of yogic meditation, that are carefully coordinated with her text. She will lead a community session on Yogagaia during the KYTA Conference, October 19 to 22.

"It's almost like a shamanic or healing ritual," she says of the practice. "It wakes up memories in ourselves of our ancestors and of our wholeness. The message is: It is a miracle that we are here."

For Hasita, that's true in more ways than one. Born in Vienna, Austria, she fled to Italy with her family as World War II approached; she also lived in Croatia, Yugoslavia, and Hungary. At age 21, she came to the United States, where she studied cell physiology at Columbia University and later married and raised a family. At age 50, she went back to school for a master's degree in geology, and in 1994 earned her Kripalu Yoga teacher certification.

"Yoga is a wonderful avenue because yoga's intention is to bring us to inner emptiness, to let go of our old stories and embrace the new ones through our body, because the body remembers," she says. Yogagaia, she explains, encourages us to tune in at the cellular level to our deep connection to the earth and the universe—and when we truly experience that oneness, we find ourselves living the principles of ahimsa.

"We have reached a point where we can choose to inflict irreversible damage to this planet, or we can choose to live in harmony with it and respect the rights of all the other beings that live here," Hasita says. "When we become aware that the story is ours, that the trees, the galaxies, the stars, and our bodies are all made of the same stuff, we realize we are not simply a collection of objects. We are a community, a sangha."

For more information about Hasita and Yogagaia, visit www.yogagaia.com.