Veda MeLA gathers yoga enthusiasts
Two women doing yoga class.
Los Angeles is a leading center for all things yoga and a natural location to unite leaders aiming to shape future trends.
Which is why dozens of yoga enthusiasts filed into lecture rooms, exhibitor booths and yoga studio spaces in downtownLos Angeles recently for the first-ever Veda MeLA, the latest example of L.A.’s — and California’s — dominant role in yoga culture.
“You can’t extricate yoga culture from L.A. culture now — it’s infused,” said Dr. Siva Mohan, a Long Beach therapist with degrees from Cornell University’s Weill Medical College and UC Berkeley, who dreamed up Veda MeLA.
Held Nov. 7 and 8 at the Reef, an event space in the former L.A. Mart building, the festival celebrated the modern emergence of yoga but within the context of its origins in the Vedas.
The Vedas are ancient Hindu scriptures that contain spiritual knowledge and guidance on social, legal, domestic and religious customs. A mela is Sanskrit for a meeting or spiritual gathering. The exposition explored yoga and the Vedas through food, lectures, spa treatments, art and literature — and plenty of yoga classes.
“L.A. is, if not the major hub, one of the major hubs of the Vedic renaissance in modern times,” Mohan said. “You can’t extricate yoga culture from L.A. culture now — it’s infused. On the back of that is Ayurveda, meditation and Vedic astrology — it’s all on the rise.”
Mohan said she applied her training in Western medicine, psychiatry, public health, yoga and the natural healing system of Ayurveda to engage the yoga community to create a gathering that aimed to bridge experts-only academic conferences and popular yoga festivals.
There were sessions in meditation, astrology and more. Workshops offered practical advice, such as how to use yoga to overcome addictive patterns and how to conduct an Ayurvedic cleanse at home. Others focused on business strategies for entrepreneurs and modern applications of Ayurvedic cooking, ritual and healing. Eco-conscious food purveyors offered organic teas, juices, kombucha brews and the latest “superfoods” — chia seeds, golden berries and maca powder.
The range of expertise illustrated how far yoga has grown from its gym-class origins, particularly in L.A. Today there are eager audiences for lectures by Christopher Chapple, the founder of Loyola Marymount University’s master of arts in yoga studies, and Mallika Chopra, an author who spoke of how she returned to the principles popularized by her father, Deepak Chopra.
“We have 12 schools of Ayurveda in California alone; over 250 yoga teacher training programs in California alone; who knows the number of yoga studios,” Mohan said. “I’m excited to get in touch with the organizers of other events and ask, ‘Where is this heading?... How can we come together in a different way, a more powerful way?’”
Veda MeLA also explored yoga’s deep roots in Los Angeles. One of the speakers included Philip Goldberg, author of “American Veda,” which chronicled how the city has been attracting yoga philosophers since the 1920s.
“L.A. has been central to the whole story,” he told those in attendance. “It’s like this relay station where yogis and gurus have come and broadcast their message to the world. We’ve become the yoga capital of the West.”
Veda MeLA is scheduled to return to Los Angeles Nov. 12 and 13, 2016.
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