Wild Yoga Tribe Podcast Episode #64 – Call to Presence – Yoga in Bangladesh with Kushal Roy Joy 

Welcome to Episode #64 of the Wild Yoga Tribe Podcast! My conversation with Kushal Roy Joy, a yoga teacher from Bangladesh, was so informational as we talked about yoga in Bangladesh and how yoga is a call to presence.

If you’re looking to tune into a podcast episode that is all about yoga in Bangladesh then this is the conversation for you.

Tell me more about Kushal Roy Joy

Kushal Roy Joy is the founder of JoySan Yoga and Wellness Center, in Dhaka Bangladesh. He is a certified yoga therapist with the International Association of Yoga Therapy, and is a certified Music Therapist as well. He is thoroughly involved in yoga in Bangladesh, whether teaching yoga at multiple universities, or at hospitals— Kushal Roy Joy also organizes international yoga festivals in Bangladesh and helps organize International Yoga Day as well.

What to expect in the Yoga In Bangladesh episode of the Wild Yoga Tribe Podcast

Kushal Roy Joy, whose nickname is Joy, walked us through what yoga in Bangladesh is like. He talked to us about what it was like to receive his Masters in Yoga Science, and what his studies were like. When he decided he wanted to become a yoga teacher, there were no yoga teacher training schools in his entire country! That’s why he had to leave Bangladesh to go to India to receive his training, and then decided to come back home to Bangladesh to open his own yoga teacher training center in Dhaka, the capital. He spoke also about how yoga is keeping the mind still. Yoga brings your mind to presence— and helps to keep your mind in the present moment. 

Kushal Roy Joy shares his delightful energy with us on the podcast, and his passion for yoga as a way to bright happiness to people! Tune into the whole Wild Yoga Tribe podcast episode to hear his stor

Favorite Quote From Kushal Roy Joy

“Yoga is the name of keeping in the mind always still. Always, you should touch in the present moment. You should focus on the present moment. That’s it.”

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#64 – Yoga in Bangladesh with Kushal Roy Joy Transcript

[00:00:00] Lily Allen-Duenas: Namaste and welcome back to the Wild Yoga Tribe Podcast today. I’m so excited to welcome Kushal Roy Joy onto the show today. He’s a yoga teacher from Bangladesh and a yoga studio owner. He owns Joysan Yoga and Wellness Center in Bangladesh. He’s a certified yoga therapist with the International Association of Yoga Therapy and as a certified music therapist as well. He’s so involved in yoga in Bangladesh, whether it’s teaching yoga at multiple universities or at hospitals. Kushal also organizes international yoga festivals in Bangladesh. So thank you so much for being on the show today. 

[00:00:39] Kushal Roy Joy: Thank you very much for inviting me here to this beautiful work of yours. 

[00:00:43] Lily Allen-Duenas: So to dive in, tell us about your story. How did yoga come into your life?

How did yoga come into your life? 

[00:00:49] Kushal Roy Joy: I first saw yoga on TV and practicing it myself. I liked doing yoga and when I learned that people’s ailmen ts are cured by practicing yoga, I started liking it more because since my childhood, I love to help people. So I wanted to do something so that people stay healthy and beautiful people don’t get sick. Then in 2009, got a yoga book, and then joined a yoga class at High Commission of India in Dhaka Bangladesh within a few days, some people started asking me [00:01:30] to teach yoga. Before that, I came to Dhaka with a diploma in agriculture and learning the work of graphics and started working in graphic designer also going to practiced theater and music classes.

One day I told my yoga teacher that I want to be a good yoga teacher and what I need to do for that, my yoga teacher told me, then go to India and take admitted in S-Vyasa Yoga University. Then I said that no one from Bangladesh has a study yoga before who will help me. My teacher said, everyone there will help you a lot. According to my yoga teacher, I got admission in a post-graduate course. At S-Vyasa Yoga University of Bangalore, India, my subject was Masters in Yoga Science with a scholarship from the high commission of India. My parents didn’t talk to me for about a month when I told them I would study yoga. Parents told me, Who will give you that job? Why are you studying this subject? This future is dark in a country like Bangladesh. I said somebody has to start it. So I started studying yoga. [00:03:00] Now I am trying to teach yoga and everyone in different places of different parts of Bangladesh, trying to inspire people.

[00:03:11] Lily Allen-Duenas: Thank you so much for sharing more about how yoga came into your life in Bangladesh. And also I would love to hear about your actual definition of yoga.

What is your definition of yoga? 

[00:03:21] Kushal Roy Joy: Yoga is the name of keeping in the mind always still. Always you should touch in the present moment. You should do focus on the present moment. That’s it.

[00:03:34] Lily Allen-Duenas: I also know that you got your masters in yoga. I think that’s amazing. A master’s in science and yoga. I know that’s not a degree that’s offered all over the world. So could you tell us more about what getting your masters in yoga was like and how was your studies?

What was getting your masters in yoga like?

[00:03:50] Kushal Roy Joy: My masters in yoga science course is two years where there were four semester and one semester we had our Yogi hospital. So we don’t call hospital. We called Aayusham. Our good Hum. A sanskrit Word. Where we use to observe various diseases of a person. Our masters in yoga science taught various basic subjects including yoga, philosophy, Patanjali Yoga Sutras, Purans, Bhagavad Gita, yoga philosophy, sanskrit, anatomy, psychology, yoga, and medicine.[00:04:30] 

Different type of yoga therapy. We all know the various aspect of yoga in depth, and our teachers described the all types of yoga sutra. And they understand us very clearly why this sutra wrote for this and why we chant before asana for this mantra and why this mantra we chan before pranayama. It. It’s a great lesson and very good academic course..

[00:05:07] Lily Allen-Duenas: Oh, great. Yeah, that sounds like an awesome course and like you’d learn a lot from it. So I know you also lead yoga teacher trainings in Bangladesh at JoySan. So tell us what it’s like to lead those teacher trainings. Are all of your students from Bangladesh or are they international? Just tell us more about your yoga teacher trainings.

Yoga teacher traning in Bangladesh

[00:05:29] Kushal Roy Joy: Yeah, there are a lot of, there are a lot of students came from out Bangladesh and maximum Bangladeshi people. I really like to give yoga teachers training in Bangladesh. When I wanted to do a certificate course on yoga in Bangladesh. At that time there was no such center in Bangladesh, which provided the certificate of International Standard Yoga teachers training course.

Since then, I thought that if there was [00:06:00] an international standard yoga teachers turning center in Bangladesh, then many people could take yoga teachers training course from there, and they could make themselves independent. There was no need to spend a lot of money to go outside.

Thinking of that, I started my first international yoga teacher training course in Bangladesh, and we are affiliated by Yoga Therapy Association, World Yoga Federation, International Yoga Therapy Association, and yoga Alliance International, the total of one 150 students from first to third batch have completed the teacher training course. I love their interest and enthusiasms.

[00:06:46] Lily Allen-Duenas: Thanks for sharing more about the yoga teacher trainings. I would also love to know why do you like teaching yoga?

[00:06:52] Kushal Roy Joy: Uh Oh. Why I love to teaching yoga. I love teaching yoga for many reason. One of the reason is that yoga practiced helps a person to become a right person. Yoga practice improves healthy person physically, spiritually, socially, financially. And they are always be happy. So I choose the profession of yoga teaching.

[00:07:19] Lily Allen-Duenas: Great. Yeah. I love teaching yoga as well, and I, there’s so many layers to what it means to be a yoga teacher. So in Bangladesh, what is yoga like in your [00:07:30] culture? What does your community think about yoga, if it’s popular or if it’s new? Just share more about your community and yoga in Bangladesh.. 

What is yoga in Bangladesh like?

[00:07:40] Kushal Roy Joy: .Yoga is currently being practiced in 64 districts of Bangladesh, which is to be practiced only in 10 to 15 district. Before people from different districts, from Bangladesh are learning online and offline in our yoga classes, teaching yoga and opening a yoga center in his district and many other choosing yoga as their profession..

Currently we are practicing yoga and various school, university, hospitality, hospitals, corporate and resorts in Bangladesh, which was not in case before. That is the future of Bangladesh. Future of yoga in Bangladesh is bright. So now many Bangladeshi people are studying yoga in foreign universities.

[00:08:38] Lily Allen-Duenas: Well, that’s interesting that a lot of people from Bangladesh are studying yoga in foreign universities now. So are they becoming yoga teachers and then coming back to Bangladesh to teach?

[00:08:50] Kushal Roy Joy: Yeah. Many yoga teachers come to Bangladesh and they are teaching yoga.

[00:08:57] Lily Allen-Duenas: That’s great. Do they teach in Dhaka and the capital [00:09:00] like you do, or do they come and work for you?

[00:09:03] Kushal Roy Joy: Dhaka is the capital and they are coming to Dhaka. And another place is very wonderful, very beautiful place. We called Cox’s Bazar. They’re a long, longest beach. We know Cox’s Bazar is the largest beach of Bangladesh. It’s a very good place to yoga. So there are many foreign yoga teachers come to Bangladesh and go to Cox’s Bazar and they’re conducting yoga class.

[00:09:34] Lily Allen-Duenas: Okay. That’s great. And so for those of our listeners who don’t know much about Bangladesh, can you tell us more about Bangladesh?

What is Bangladesh like? 

[00:09:43] Kushal Roy Joy: Bangladesh has India on one side, Myanmar on the, another side, and Nepal and Bhutan on the other side. And the south Bangladesh is fully the beach is the, this is the ocean. And there are saying in Bengali people that Bengali language, ma bangali ma means fish, but means rice. Bangali is Community. So we like fish and rice and the people of Bangladesh have very much happy and we love guests and we love to give [00:10:30] hospitality.

[00:10:31] Lily Allen-Duenas: I’ve loved how you’ve talked about yoga in Bangladesh and also what Bangladesh is like and what you love about teaching yoga. So is there anything more that you want to add or any final thoughts about what yoga means to you or what yoga means to your country?

What does yoga mean to Bangladesh?

[00:10:50] Kushal Roy Joy: Yeah. We have some we have some issues for our country. Because, in the context of Bangladesh, yoga is considered by all to be an act of Hinduism. No one want to do it easily because the ma of Muslim, Muslim community in this country, but now they’re thinking, No, this is not for.

Only Hinduism, but it’s a lifestyle. Yoga means a lifestyle. So now they’re practicing yoga, pranayama, meditation and mantra, and they understand, oh, this is only a path of a very good lifestyle, not comes from religion. So now there are a lot of people are joining yoga out of their religion view. So this is very much very much positive lesson for Bangladesh.

And that’s it. And we have some yoga courses and we have another service is Reiki, [00:12:00] acupressure color therapy, magnet therapy, astrology, varo, so anyone can join with us by online or offline.

[00:12:11] Lily Allen-Duenas: Well, Thank you so much for joining me today. Kushal, I am going to link your your Facebook page, JoySan here in the show notes, wherever our listeners are listening to this podcast, as well as on my website, wildyogatribe.com/yogainbangladesh so they can find you there. And also read a transcription of this podcast episode if you wanna follow along. There’ll be other goodies there on the website too. So thank you so much for being with me today. It’s been so nice to be with you.

[00:12:43] Kushal Roy Joy: Dear listener, On behalf of JoySan Yoga and Wellness Center, I invite you all to come to Bangladesh specially thanks to dear Lily-Ji for inviting me to her beautiful event. May you all be well. Be healthy. Be beautiful. Thank you.

Wild Yoga Tribe Podcast Outro

[00:13:04] Lily Allen-Duenas: Thank you so much for tuning into this episode of the Wild Yoga Tribe Podcast. My conversation with Kushal Roy Joy, a yoga teacher from Bangladesh was so informational as we talked about how yoga is a call to presence as yoga is always helping to keep the mind still. And if you’re looking to tune into a podcast episode that’s all about yoga in Bangladesh, then this is the conversation for [00:13:30] you. Thank you for listening to the Wild Yoga Tribe Podcast. Be well. 

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