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Blessed Self, dear friends and students,

As you may know the Sivananda Centers in New York City and Chicago, as well as the Sivananda Ashram Yoga Ranch have been closed to the public for over a week as a proactive measure to help stem the spread of the covid19 virus. Since then the epidemic in the USA and especially in New York has grown exponentially. From the day we closed we have gathered our center staff at the Yoga Ranch to continue our practice, to support each other and to do what we can to continue with our mission of disseminating the Yoga teachings and support the Sivananda Yoga community in a growing isolated environment. Respecting social distancing, we have started live satsangs, study groups and hopefully soon – asana classes using the growing social media software of Facebook Live. We hope to get started soon with Zoom, and if we can all generate subscriptions of over 1000, YouTube (Please help us by subscribing to our channel). We are currently a collective of 12 yoga practitioners at the Yoga Ranch and we have been developing protocols during the past week to limit the danger of the group spreading the virus, should one of us get sick. These practices include:

1. Stocking up on food and medical supplies so no one need leave the ashram for purchases for several weeks if necessary to avoid bringing in the disease.
2. We have further sequestered ourselves by closing the ashram to all outside guests, staff, workers, students etc. If and when we receive an outside person, we have set off an apartment with a private bathroom for them to pass a mandatory quarantine before interacting with other staff.
3. We have started handwashing, sanitizing procedures for staff as well as communally used facilities like bathrooms, office, kitchen, etc. We are even quarantining delivered packages for a few days before bringing them into the house.
4. We have instigated the same social distancing disciplines as outside the ashram of small gatherings, (10 or less), keeping the six foot physical rule whenever we come for meals, satsang, or class.
5. We have a registered nurse on staff who is advising us on all matters connected to the virus.

With all of these protocols we feel that we can safely both participate in the small satsangs and group asana practice, and to share these practices with those of you who can not join us physically for classes as the Centers and Ashram are closed to the public. We do not consider this group practice as public gatherings any more than a family coming together who live in the same house. We are all in excellent health and are doing everything we can to maintain our health. Obviously our health plan centers around our yoga and meditation practice as well as the healthy diet of the Ashram. We hope to be able to share our practice with you, as well as to bring to you via Zoom, teachers and musicians outside of the ashram for as long as this crisis continues and we cannot meet in person. We are entering a new world, trying our best to continue our practice and service while respecting the new rules. We are learning everyday. We hope that you will continue on this journey with us. We hope to soon offer interactive workshops and classes via Zoom. Though our income stream has been cut off since the closings, we know that you too are being challenged economically and we are making all of our sharings free of charge. However, if you have the means and the concern we will accept any donations to help support our full-time staff during these challenging times.

Om and Prem,
Srinivasan