Hi everyone. Welcome to episode 66 of the Let's Talk Yoga podcast. I hope you are doing well. On the show today, I have a special conversation lined up for you. We're talking about the different margas or parts of yoga and how to live your yoga off your mat with Umas Subramanyam.

Umma and I met a decade ago when I still lived in India. We met briefly. We in fact have a common teacher. And I had no idea that a decade

later when I reached out to her that she would even remember that brief encounter. And it was,

she obliged instantly to come and share about how to live your yoga

off your mat, which I'm so grateful for because it's not an easy topic. And it has many layers

and nuances to it. So in today's conversation, Umma and I really start to unpack what are these

margars, what marga being a path? What are these

paths of yoga? And how to really start living your yoga off your mat and how to how to get started.

Does a teacher initiate you? Is it something you do on your own? And Uma answers all of this in

today's show. Uma has a master's in yogic sciences as well as a master's in Sanskrit and she has been

teaching with a thousand yoga academy in India since 2011 and that's how we met.

She has been part of many, many yoga teacher training programs and has interacted with a lot of yoga

graduates as they navigate their career. She's also a level two yoga teacher with the ministry

of Ayush. Again, some of this may not make sense to you because it's a lot of Indian credentialing.

But she is someone who was initiated into yoga by her father when she was younger.

And her interest slowly evolved to rigorous martial arts. And then she went on to study English

literature and got and started working. She eventually moved to the US. She lived here for 15

years before going back to India.

And that's when she says her second yoga life really began.

And today, she consults and designs yoga therapy programs for a startup in Bangalore.

She also continues to teach and train yoga students all over.

She also teaches students in Austria and in Germany and Spain and works with corporates,

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