Sasha has been studying Indic Knowledge Systems since she was 16 years old and feels that studying Veda is finally integrating all her knowledge and tying it together.
By Sophia Ann French
“I’ve been in love with India ever since the day I stepped into India when I was 16. My friends even tease me, saying that I’m more Indian than Indians,” says Brazil-based Philosophy Teacher and in-training to be a Veda Recitation teacher, Sasha Alano. She travelled to India with her father in her teens, and they ended up at the Osho āshram in Pune. That was the beginning of a lifelong love for all things Indian and especially Indic Knowledge and spirituality. “I lived in India, Europe and Australia in my teens and 20s, and when I turned 30, I came back home because after all that travelling, I wanted to settle down and start a family. In the 12 to 14 years I spent travelling, I was always learning yoga and meditating, and I studied physical education because I wanted to teach yoga. After my education, I opened a yoga school in South Brazil with my then-husband, who is also my daughter’s father. We offered Teacher Trainings, and I would take people on tours to India. It was going well. As the years passed, I specialised in Hindu scriptures, Sanskrit and mantra chanting. I don’t teach āsana anymore; I teach philosophy. Mantras have been a part of my life since I was 16, and I was always searching for a teacher to help me dive deeper into this practice. As I had my daughter, I couldn’t take a year off and go to India to study, so I wanted something online. When I found Shantala and Veda Studies, it made me feel like a saying in Portuguese, ‘when hunger meets the will to eat,’” explains Sasha.
She has been studying with Veda Studies for three years. She began with the Foundation Course, followed by several self-paced courses. Sasha felt that despite living in India and studying with various teachers, her knowledge of India and its knowledge systems was superficial. She knew that the Vedas were four books of knowledge, but was looking for a teacher who could help her understand what this knowledge meant and how to study it. “I know Sanskrit, and I speak Hindi (not perfectly, but I can get by), but most teachers spoke to me and taught me like they were simplifying the knowledge for a foreigner. Until I started studying with Veda Studies. In fact, I now realise just how much there is to learn and find out. I was also studying Āyurveda and Jyotiṣa, but I stopped, as it is simply not possible to do justice to all these systems by studying them at the same time. I found the depth I was looking for in my study with Shantala. I currently teach the Yoga Sūtras and Bhagavad Gīta, and I’m enjoying studying about Veda: its origin, how we approach study and how to recite mantras correctly. In fact, while Osho’s teachings shaped my early learning, I don’t think I really understood those teachings. It is only now that I can give context to everything that I learned because learning about Veda just brings everything together.”
Discovering a Formal Education of Veda
When she first started studying Veda, Sasha expected a course with a beginning, a middle and an end — a common misconception most students have. When we start studying Veda, we realise just how important it is to do so under the guidance of a teacher aligned with a tradition. The Vedas are a vast collection of knowledge, and it is imperative to study with a teacher who can help the students navigate this vast ocean of knowledge and steer them in the right direction. “I had this desire to understand the Vedas and the translation. I thought that there would be an order, like the first mantra of the first mandala. I tried to understand it logically, as we often do in the West. There is, of course, logic to the Veda, but not in the typical sense. I realised that to understand this poetry, I need to change the way I apply my intelligence to it. Veda is an experience, and we have to recite the mantra to understand that. I found this way of learning phenomenal. I was also pleasantly surprised by how strict Shantala is (laughs). She is very specific about how we recite, the rules and the grammar and never deviates from tradition. I admire that tradition is upheld in this way. Shantala has a great combination of being very strict but very loving simultaneously. I am inspired by that method, and I want to emulate it,” says Sasha. She’s glad she discovered this practice and this teaching method at this time in her life, as she has the space to accommodate this kind of thorough, unhurried learning. “I’m 52, and while I still practice āsanā, I’m looking for a practice that I can do for the rest of my life. Even when my body may or may not be able to sustain a physical practice. My home life is well-settled, so I am not in a rush to get things done. I can enjoy the slow pace and take it one mantra at a time.”
Discovering The Art of Teaching and Sharing Veda
Sasha is attending the current Indica Veda Studies Teacher Training Programme and says that after the first month, Shantalaji asked the students what touched them most about the TTC. Sasha’s answer was, “The level of commitment of my classmates. I made so many friends, and we practice together. We help each other so much, and without that, I think I would be a little bit lost. The TTC programme is intense. You might feel like you know a mantra because you studied it before the TTC, but the TTC is much more elaborate than the live courses. We are also constantly given feedback, and we work with that. In fact, attending the Level I TTC, I realised that I want to thoroughly study the Level II syllabus before signing up. After I complete the first TTC, I won’t start teaching immediately as I want to spend more time polishing what I learned, but I do intend to teach. There are no Veda recitation teachers in my state, Rio Grande do Sul, and I want to bring this practice to my state, share it and build a community.” Sasha advises new students to Veda and those who wish to pursue teaching it in the future to “Delve deep and with commitment, because what you get back is profound. Spirituality is a way of transcending our limitations, so we are not stopped or caught in the things that limit us.”
To get in touch with Sasha, email her at [email protected]