Who Learned You Yoga?
By Mehtab, Founder of YOGA YOGA
July 2009

"Son," my grandfather told me when I was eight years old, "I'm going to learn you how to ride a horse."

Later on he "learned" me how to take eggs from laying hens and cleanly pull ticks off a dog's ear. All valuable life skills taught with aplomb but seldom used since.

But my grandfather did "learn" me one thing I valued all my life. Grammar aside, there is no difference between "learning" and "teaching."

And that is especially true with yoga.

My teacher Yogi Bhajan once said, "If you want to learn something, read about it. If you want to understand something, write about it. If you want to master something, teach it."

The complete learning of anything only comes when you teach it. I discovered this about yoga in 1974 when I took my first yoga teacher training course in a Kundalini Yoga ashram in San Rafael, California. I was doing yoga four hours a day, walking in the Redwoods, studying yogic texts, and meditating all the rest of the time to accelerate me toward enlightenment. I was taking the teacher's training course mostly because I wanted to learn everything there was to learn about yoga. I certainly did not do it because I wanted to teach. I was a self-contained social unit, intent and intense on working on myself, with little desire to share all that I was continually absorbing.

Then one day my teacher at the ashram said, "Mehtab, the local high school needs a yoga teacher and I think you should do it."

I was only a few years out of high school myself and very happy to have left it behind but I sensed there was something special in this request I couldn't ignore. After all I had just finished a 40-day teacher-training course. I had no defense.

"And you will be working in the PE department. With the coaches," he ominously added.

So there I was, back in the land of the enemy, dressed up in my yogi clothes, teaching yoga to 17-year olds who were taking a yoga class because it was the only PE requirement that did not make them sweat. I dutifully prepared lesson plans for the tennis coach to approve (the football and basketball coaches would have nothing to do with that "yoga stuff") and created homework and exams and "coached" a couple of students who were actually interested in learning yoga.

And one day when I was teaching yoga, I discovered that for the first time I was truly "learning" it. I got it. I understood it because I had to be able to explain it and demonstrate it and communicate it well enough so that someone else could learn it. I was teaching myself by "learning" them.

The real secret of yoga is that ultimately you do have to teach yourself. It is great when you learn from a teacher, and we all need to do that, but to be able to listen and learn from your inner teacher is truly profound. And that only comes when you begin to teach others.

Regardless if you have been doing yoga for a few weeks or many years, you have something to teach your friends, your family, and your coworkers. A posture, a breath, a meditation, or even an attitude given to you by your yoga practice, can create a life-changing experience when you share these with someone you know.

Want to fully appreciate yoga? Teach it. That will learn you!