Mumbai, May 23, 2019: Yoga, an art of balancing opposites, brings together Sanya Malhotra, a young accomplished superstar Bollywood actress with renowned yogi and international authority on mind management, Swami Mukundananda. They will be having an open dialogue about yoga and holistic wellness at Dallas Yoga Fest, June 14-15, 2019 in Allen, TX.
Dallas Yoga Fest is a premiere holistic health festival in the Dallas Texas area, where visitors can learn and discover a variety of modalities of holistic health, yoga, and more all under one roof.
The following morning, June 15th, Dallas Yoga Fest opens with multiple simultaneous sessions, an Exhibition and Market Place, health clinic, as well as children’s area running all day from 8 am to 5 pm. At the, main keynote event both Malhotra will be joining Swami Mukundananda for “Spirit of Yoga Fest” where they will share their insight and inspirations.
Before Sanya began her acting career, she was a yoga and dance instructor. Since childhood Sanya held steadfast to the dream of developing a career in acting and dancing. Despite being fought with challenges and stress, she managed to hold her course on the road to earning her place in Bollywood filmmaking. One of the foundational sources of inspiration and groundedness came to her through the practice of yoga.
“I recognize that I had to dig deep down inside of me to find the ability to immerse myself in a character and become as genuine as possible to the audience. My focus and creativity flows from yoga. I strive to give all of me in every dance or acting performance, and this flow is essential to every aspect of my career and my personal life.”
Sanya made her debut performance in the Dangal movie and rocketed her career to stardom. She played a wrestler – an activity that she had to completely learn to play the part. Her subsequent movies demonstrated the breadth and depth of her acting abilities, in very different casting roles.
“Yoga teaches me discipline in being able to live in the present moment, let go of my own emotions, likes, dislikes, and personality, and overcome any anxieties. It’s both lightness and groundedness, both knowing who you are and yet being able to walk away from it and transcend who I am. When I played the fiery Chutki in Pataakha I was a character I felt like I had nothing at all in common with. It took me time to get into that character but I took it as a challenge to push me to new boundaries.”
Yoga teaches that the place where contrasts intersect is a place of learning and discovery about ourselves. Swami Mukundananda’s life took a turn from one lifestyle of a successful graduate of both IIT/IIM with a promising corporate career at an international conglomerate, to focusing on a life of spirituality. “As I moved along with my duties in the corporate world, the more I felt the pull inside of me in a totally different direction. Though I decided to take sanyas, I would like people to know that does not mean that quest to evolve cannot coexist with our worldly life and duties. Clarity auty of the path of yoga is that it is every individual’s unique journey.”
Sanya uses dance as a form of creative expression. She has choreographed many dances including with Amir Khan. “Yoga enhanced my body awareness for dancing and acting, kept me healthy and physically fit, but much more. Clarity and focus of mind, and the sense of peace amid the chaos, and even deeper finding that source of inner strength,“ Sanya explained.
Sanya connects her acting performance with yoga and even dancing. “Developing a good body awareness, sharpness of mind, and the ability to immerse yourself in the present have come from practicing yoga. Yoga also gave me the internal strength to persevere through difficulties and mistakes, and help me keep taking a step forward even after a fall. I am young, I recognize I have a lot more to learn, but I want to share my enthusiasm for yoga and inspire people especially youth to take advantage of what yoga offers you.”
For someone with only about 3 years of acting experience she has achieved great success in quite a short time. Could yoga be the secret? Sanya muses on her success, “I know I can’t rest on my existing achievements and have to continue to grow. Acting can feel like a volatile lifestyle with constantly changing characters, movie sets, and roles. Yoga keeps me steady and grounded. I can’t imagine going without it. I’m grateful for the opportunity to inspire others to take advantage of how much yoga offers and for the chance to meet a great yogi.”
Swami Mukundananda founded JKYog and started promoting yoga in the USA about 10 years ago. Currently he has about 25 operating centers around the country and has been conducting yoga and life transformation programs around the world over the last 3 decades. He has authored many books on yogic philosophy, yoga, healthy living and mind management techniques. Swamiji has lectured at corporations such as Intel, Google, and universities such as Yale, MIT and numerous other institutions including United Nations.
“It is great to see Sanya outspoken on the benefits of yoga and make it a part of her life. The more we make yoga a holistic practice that engages body, mind and soul, the more we will benefit in all aspects of our life,” remarked Mukundananda, Founder of JKYog, a non-profit entity promoting holistic health and evolution of humankind around the world.
Swami Mukundananda takes the engineering and management background and translates the wisdom of the ancient scriptures into the language and lifestyles of modern life. “Yoga is the best tool for man, even more so today, to face the inherent turbulence of our modern lifestyle and to tap into the vastness of our human capability. No matter what road in life we take, yoga will help us excel and reach our maximum potential.”
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