VICTORIA, B.C. CANADA - An Indian yogi will visit Victoria to offer a free intensive course on spiritual science and Kriyayoga starting next week.

Swami Shree Yogi Satyam, a biologist and former medical student,  will talk about the practice of "evenmindedness" during two evening  sessions at UVic and a series of free daily sessions.

"Yoga is a state of oneness, the absence of duality," says Satyam, who explains that Kriyayoga is a practice that directs the attention inside the spinal cord "to a place where billions of neurons are sleeping. When the neurons become awakened we understand better . . . we awaken the intuition and the intellect."

He says the body is made up of systems, but energy is made up of  thought. "If you influence the quality of thought you influence the  whole body. When the spinal cord is charged with the right thought,  then the life current changes.

" When we feel tension, frustration, sickness or have problems in  life it is because of the quality of our thoughts," said the teacher who lives in India but travels to the West Coast once a year . "This is a discipline to bring together mind, body, wisdom, ego, heart and soul."

Kriyayoga has been called the highest form of meditation but he stresses it is an easy form of yoga that involves some very moderate exercises that are similar to tai chi but feature more than postures.
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A person who tries it for three or four or five days will gain greater energy, peace and understanding, said Satyam who will offer morning and evening sessions from 7 to 8:30 a.m. daily from Monday through July 10 at the Church of Truth, 111 Superior St. and in the evening at the Victoria Hindu Temple, 1934 Cultra Ave. in Saanichton, from 7 to 9 p.m. He will talk Wednesday at the Interfaith Chapel, from 7:30 to 9:30 p.m., and Saturday at the Centre of Innovative Teaching, in room 105, from 4 to 6 p.m.