OPEN LETTER TO THE SHIVA NATA COMMUNITY

First of all I want to thank you all the Shiva Nata community for the enduring passion and
patience during the time of communication with Havi. I believe it is a good beginning for
our understanding and support of each other. I apologize for the length of this letter. This
length is the result of a lot of important questions that have accumulated during this time of
waiting, and all of them must be answered and clarified. At the same time, I hope you will
find this letter interesting and inspiring for you, and a step toward clarity for everyone.

***
16 years ago I was blessed with the visit of an astral being in a high Himalayan cave. A
result of that visit was the downloading of essential knowledge about yoga in my
consciousness. Many independent parts of the Yoga system exist on the East as parts of
the broken mirror, were linked together under that influence, in my mind. Many Eureka-like
realizations started to happen constantly with me after that. It is still in progress even now.
Shiva Nata, as a part of the Universal Yoga system, became a flower of that realization.
I wrote a book Yoga: Tradition of Unification at 1998, in Russian, explaining there, the
main ideas of Universal Yoga and Shiva Nata. This book was translated in English in 2000
and Universal Yoga and Shiva Nata were both represented to the world Yoga community
during my teachers trainings in Russia, Ukraine, Germany, Israel, USA, Hong Kong,
Singapore, Taiwan, Indonesia, and Nepal from that time.
I come from a world of honesty and idealism. My teaching has reflected this until now. I
have tried to represent my teaching to my students in all the countries of the world in this
same way as spiritual and idealistic. But, I noticed many facts during the last few years,
when the results of my creative work were used by some yoga teachers as their own
creations (plagiarism) and the methods created by me were converted into a business-forprofit by other teachers. It pushed me to protect my rights with patents, copyrights and
trademark registrations.
Currently living in the USA, I can see this as a natural reflection of the social system and
material culture of people in Western countries. I must adjust myself to this tendency and
to create specific rules for both Universal Yoga and Shiva Nata teachings. That is why I
have to separate the teaching of Universal Yoga from Shiva Nata into two parts. One is an
idealistic practice as an beneficial art for oneself. And another is the teaching-as-abusiness-for-profit. These two can be done separately or together.
Firstly, idealistic ideas and methods of Universal Yoga and Shiva Nata are perfectly
represented in my teaching programs, with all complete details. These programs have
been well-developed during my years of teaching. I seek to constantly perfect the methods
of my teaching.
Secondly, the business aspects of Universal Yoga and Shiva Nata teaching are the main
topic of discussion in this letter. This part was ignored by me for many years because I
always believed in the natural spirituality of my Yoga students. At the same time, I found
many mistakes and the not perfect actions of students who had no idea of all the

important rules of an honest Yoga business. I want to fill up this gap by developing a clear
and understandable business model, based on the honesty and respect of both teachers
and students.
Fundamental aspects of this model must follow the moral yogic rules of Yama, in particular
Satya (Truth/Honesty), Asteya (Non-Stealing, Non-plagiarism), Aparigraha (Non-Greed),
and respect to the Guru. I will explain how these rules can be broken down below, along
with that, all which we want to avoid in the future, following the ethics of Yoga and a
modern civil law.
Any product, material or intellectual, includes the work of the people who took a part in the
creation of this product. So, talking about bread as a product, for example; Someone grew
the wheat, someone ground the wheat into flour, someone made baked the wheat into
bread, someone delivers the bread to the shop and someone sells the bread. The price of
the bread compensates the work of all the people who took part in the bread appearing on
the shelves in the shop. Their compensation would be in correspondence with the amount
of energy spent, and the importance of their work.
If someone is using results of the work of the people who grew the wheat, made the flour,
and baked the bread, but didnt pay for the work at all, then they are selling the bread and
taking all the profit for themselves as if the bread fell down from the sky. We can call such
people stealers of the bread or plagiarists.
They are breaking Asteya rule of Yoga.
I want you to know that I spent years and years of hard, professional work, systematizing
and developing positions, movements and the algorithms of movements for all the levels of
Shiva Nata. This process of development is still in progress, even now.
Included in this work is a professor of math from Kiev Military Aviation Academy in Ukraine
(as a Shiva Nata matrixes consultant) and five professional programmers who aided in the
production of instructional materials such as my book, posters, computer video training
programs and DVDs. I paid thousands of dollars for their work to help me to see the
mathematic rules laid at the base of the Shiva Nata system so as to create a fully
complete, and high quality instructional system with educational products.
As a result, all eight levels of my Shiva Nata computer video programs were developed.
The 1st and 2nd levels of Shiva Nata were described by me in my book Yoga:Tradition of
Unification and illustrated on two separate yoga posters. The 1st, 2nd and partly 3rd
levels practice and all 8 levels of theory of Shiva Nata were also represented by me in a
separate DVD called Dance of Shiva, produced by Pranamaya, a company in the
USA. All the Pranamaya products were copyrighted and I have thus obtained
trademarks for Shiva Nata and Dance of Shiva.
Shiva Nata (Dance of Shiva) can be practiced as a separate training system, but in reality
it is a part of the full system of Universal Yoga. That is why I was temporarily satisfied to
finish the development of all eight levels of Shiva Nata in the computer video programs.
Since that time, I have been very busy developing other aspects and methods for the
Universal Yoga System. Hence, I have not had time yet to produce any additional posters

and DVDs for the 4th-8th levels of Shiva Nata. But it has always been my plan to do so. As
creator of this system, I have the right to wait to produce such materials and to expect that
others will respect my right to wait.
I would like Shiva Nata practitioners to realize my role in the restoration and development
of the Shiva Nata system. My work has been equal to the founders of such big and famous
Eastern training systems like Chi-Gong, Tai-Chi or Aikido. Basically, I created work
significant enough to be equal to the Japanese martial arts teacher Uesiba Morihey, who
created the Aikido system based on the experience of previous martial arts teachers of
different martial arts schools.
Uesiba lived about 100 years ago, in Japan only, but in 100 years, his system, Aikido, was
spread around the World, and it can be found in almost all countries and cities of the World
today.
Shiva Nata is not a martial arts system itself, but was used by many martial arts schools in
the past, as a foundation for the respective schools techniques of movements. The main
goal of Shiva Nata is Yogic - personal, conscious control, balance, coordination and
reaction speed development.
Here is the note about my role from Wikipedia (free online Encyclopedia),
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andrey_Lappa:
Andrey Lappa is a Ukrainian yoga instructor. Originally trained as an engineer, Lappa
began teaching yoga in 1998, and subsequently became President of the Kiev Yoga
Federation and founded Universal Yoga. He was a student of BKS Iyengar. Lappa
developed a modern form of dynamic yoga named Shiva Nata ("Dance of Shiva").
I just want to comment that I printed my book Yoga: Tradition of Unification in Russian at
1998. And I had a lot of yoga experience before to be able to write my book. I was involved
in Buddhism in Mongolia at 1978 and I started practice of yoga at 1979. I started to teach
yoga in Ukraine at 1984. And I started study with B.K.S. Iyengar and Pattabhi Jois at 1994.
Probably Wikipedia has information about my book and later products dates only and has
no information about my personal history before 1998.
I restored and developed the Shiva Nata training system for people and I'm really glad to
know that you practitioners of Shiva Nata have found this system beneficial, and inspiring,
same as it was for me during the last 16 years. I'm happy to know that the quantity of
Shiva Nata practitioners is increasing every year. This has happened mostly because my
training products became widely available on the market from Pranamaya, and also
because of the active work of a few enthusiastic students of mine who have worked to
share and promote Shiva Nata in different countries.
For example, my student from Taipei (Taiwan) - Laura, mastered 4 levels of Shiva Nata in
just 3 months. My student Helen (Ganga) from St. Petersburg (Russia), mastered all 8
levels of Shiva Nata in just one year (please enjoy her Shiva Nata practice of the higher
levels riding a bike following this link: http://youtu.be/8hpJzSmqLu8). My student Havi from
the USA mastered 7 levels of Shiva Nata in just 4 years, and she did a lot to promote
Shiva Nata in the USA.
Now I would like to discuss the results of Havis work. In general, she did many good
things.

I respect all the work which she input into the promotion of Shiva Nata in the USA. At the
same time, many things were done in a not-complete-way. I observed her work during
many years and now it has come to the point where I must take action to correct any
mistakes and help move them in a right direction.
For the general understanding of all Shiva Nata practitioners, I must clarify a few things.
Havi graduated my Universal Yoga Teachers Training in Israel on May 30, 2004. She was
certified in the 1st and 2nd Levels of Shiva Nata at that time. Later, she mastered herself
the next two levels (3rd and 4th) and she took an individual exam with me, after which, I
certified her in the 3rd and 4th levels.
In 2006-2007 Havi obtained from me, the computer video programs for all eight levels of
the Shiva Nata system (I gave them free of charge to her). She practiced all these levels
herself, but I never certified her beyond the 4th level.
And after Havi obtained the computer video programs of all levels from me, she never
again contacted me in any way. My computer video programs were her main source of all
the levels of Shiva Nata practices. The absence of her contacting me after I shared this
information with her, was very much disappointing for me.
Havi and I never discussed the possibility for Havi to certify others as Shiva Nata teachers
and I never gave her such permission. Havi's personal certificate given by me, gives her
rights to teach regular group and individual classes and workshops only.
During our last friendly meeting, Havi mentioned her intention to write a book about Shiva
Nata and to produce Shiva Nata Apps. I clearly asked her to not write a book, because I
had my own plans to write a book. I asked her not to produce the Apps, because it would
simply be a reformatting of my copyrighted computer programs. Havi says that she doesn't
remember this part of our conversation. But I never forget such things.
All the basic positions, standard movements and algorithms of movements for Shiva Nata
are
represented in my book, posters and DVDs. My book for example, has a footnote on the
first page, that basically says, no part of this book can be reproduced in any written, digital
or other format.
Despite the fact that I never gave permission to Havi to certify other teachers and despite
the fact that I clearly asked her to not write a book, and to not produce Apps, Havi still did
all these things.
She clearly describes in her teachers manual, all the levels of Shiva Nata (exactly that
which I
asked her not to do) and she sold these manuals for the price of a book. Also, she
reformatted (or had someone else reformat) my copyrighted computer video programs to
create her App for Shiva Nata.
I prefer not to think about people in a negative way. That is why I don't want to believe that
she has done these things with any bad intention (but may be just without of realization of
ignorance of me as her teacher). I prefer to believe that Havi just wanted to give her

students helpful materials. However, she did this is in a fundamentally wrong and illegal
way.
It has been hard for me to understand why she did what she did, after I clearly asked her
to not do such things. I am also puzzled as to why she never contacted me, if she wanted
permission to do such things. She has always had all my contact information, and it is very
easy to contact me, because I have been teaching in the USA every year since her
certification. We are potentially connected via the internet all the time, even if I'm not in the
USA, because she known my email address.
I understand that the market for Shiva Nata materials is not wide yet, and that Havi didn't
get a lot of profit out of the Apps sales, same as I didn't get a lot of profit out of my
computer video programs yet. But the fact remains that the production of the Apps is just a
reformatting of my computer programs. Production of the Apps has been done with an
ignoring of the big part of my work, which I did to develop the positions, the standard
movements and the algorithms of all the levels. This Apps production was done without
any acknowledgement of my role and without any royalty to me, and that is not acceptable.
And I was ready to even forgive her ignorance. But, my lawyer has strongly advised me to
ask Havi to close her Apps if I want to keep my Shiva Nata copyright going forward. That is
why I asked Havi to stop her Apps sales.
I don't want to say anything bad about Havi. I prefer to think that she acted like this
because when she and I met the last time in 2006-2007 we didn't discuss all the possible
potential details of her teaching and what she would have rights to teach. Such a
discussion was absent (except about Apps and a book) because I still didn't know at that
time, what Havi would do in her future ( such as to certify other teachers without my legal
permission).
In a similar example of the free flow of my copyrighted information, another student of
Havis (Beth Freeman), produced her own posters of 7 levels of Shiva Nata, including
instructional videos based on Havi's instructions (the fundament for which came from my
copyrighted programs). I know that it was a lot of work to produce these posters and
videos, but it is again a case of the using of the bread produced by somebody without
even thinking about the work of the people who produced all the ingredients that go into
bread. Such poor behavior as this is impossible for a civilized country like the USA. USA
citizens must understand and respect copyright laws.
And it is OK, if somebody posting on You-Tube some little parts of any levels of Shiva Nata
for the inspiration of other practitioners or for promotion of their own teaching. But no any
of such videos on You-Tube must show any full level of practice or more then 25% of of
any full level program. Because it is becoming free instructional video and it is conflicting
with legal copyright law. That is why I ask all of Shiva Nata practitioners who posted such
videos of full levels of Shiva Nata practice on You-Tube take them out of You-Tube and
to post only little parts of their practice there not more then 25% of each level full
practice.
Also I see that in the West, not many people understand and respect Eastern culture, and
in particular, Yoga Tradition. I have traveled to India 42 times and to the Himalayas (Nepal)
26 times, extensively learning and practicing there. I have seen many examples of the misunderstandings of foreigners who have tried to study Yoga in the East.

One of the main elements of Eastern culture is respect of and for the teacher.
Havi asked me in her last letter, why I didn't contact her myself during all these years, if I
wanted to hear from her. This question is a very typical example of such a misunderstanding.
Because it is not my responsibility as a teacher to contact Havi as my student. It is totally
her responsibility to stay in touch with me as her teacher, and to coordinate her actions
with me. She would do this if she really respected me and my teachings. I can only see
this mis-understanding as a result of Havis belief that Shiva Nata is just a training system
(akin to fitness training for the brain), without any morality of Yoga (Yama) and without any
respect to me as the teacher/creator of this system in traditional way.
Havi told me that Shiva Nata never brought any interesting profit to her and that she is
teaching Shiva Nata altruistically. But, as I have been told the price of her programs by
Shiva Nata students, it looks like her prices were 3 times higher than mine, when
compared to my similar programs and prices per hour. Since she has already certified
nearly 60 teachers, it is not possible to call her work completely altruistic.
Anyway, I want everybody to know that it is not my goal to destroy the interest in Shiva
Nata that Havi has developed. That is why I have not asked Havi to stop any of her other
projects (excluded Apps buy recommendation of my lawyer). Quite the opposite, I actively
invited Havi to start developing an integration of our work together on all levels. I repeated
this proposition to her three times in my letters, but Havi has made the decision to refuse
my proposition, and to pull out of all Shiva Nata projects for a minimum of one year, and to
focus on the development of her own creative system.
That is fine for me, but I still hope that Havi will come to a decision of integration after her
one year (or less) of reflection. I will wait for her return and be happy to embark together
with her on some positive cooperation with me in the future. And I'll always send her my
love and peace.
I had put on hold my intention to develop a clear and understandable Shiva Nata
education and business model, since this October, because I have been waiting for replies
from Havi. But now, nothing is on hold any more, and I want to move forward with the
introduction of ideas for this system, to the wider Shiva Nata community.
Note! What I list below is just a starting model, which is not final and is in the process of
development. It may be modified in the future, in order to create greater perfection.
Changes and corrections will be announced in advance to the Shiva Nata community.
I see Shiva Nata in the future as a worldwide system of training, healing, creativity (and it
may even be an Olympic competition, but probably not during my lifetime), similar to ChiGong, Tai-Chi or Aikido.
I see two aspects of this system: 1) a practice for yourself as a hobby and 2) professional
work for profit.

Those two aspects have another two aspects : 1) practice plus teaching; and 2) production
of the products for sale, such as books, videos, Apps, posters, clothing with symbols, tools
for practice and etc.
On the basis of these aspects, I see four parts of possible activities for Shiva Nata
practitioners, which can be done separately or together. There must be clear rules for
everyone, and everyone must respect the rules. Here are few possible business models
below:
1. Practitioners who are practicing Shiva Nata for their personal benefit and development
only pay for any classes, a regular fee only. Such practitioners would have rights to use the
training materials which they obtained during their classes for their personal practice only
and maybe for demonstration to their friends, but not for teaching for profit. They have no
rights to teach other people and to be paid by others for this.
2. Practitioners who want to become Shiva Nata teachers must graduate an official
Teachers Training with me and successfully pass exams of each and every level,
demonstrating not their own practice only, but also their competence to show practice and
to verbally lead others through all the necessary movements. They also must answer
written exam questions related to the theory of Shiva Nata and to be able to do lectures
explaining the main ideas of Shiva Nata theory.
After such certification, these teachers would have rights to teach other students during
group or individual classes or workshops, but they would have no rights to certify others as
teachers (this is the certificate which Havi have got from me before). All certified teachers
would be required to sign an agreement that they understand their rights and limitations
according to their certificates.
3. Those Shiva Nata teachers who have had a few years experience of teaching already,
and who demonstrate the respect of the teacher commonly found in Yoga Tradition, who
also show complete understanding of the Shiva Nata system and wish to input more
energy into Shiva Nata promotion can obtain permission to certify other teachers. Those
teachers will get a separate, special certificate of Shiva Nata Master. In this case, they
can hold an independent Teachers Training and would be required to make videos of the
students who are going through the examination at the end of their courses. They would
be required to send those videos to me and I will check their practice looking at that videos
and the results of their theoretical exam.
I will give the certificates to those students who show good results. In this case, teachers
who will run such TTs will get all the profit for their teaching during their TTs for themself,
but payment for the examination and certification must be given to me. A separate price of
examination in this case will be equal to 8% compare to the total price of the TT course
(this is just an idea for now and it can be corrected in future depending of the general
prices for the programs in future).
If some students will show not good results they will need to repeat the examination later
(again paying the same amount for the every exam repetition).

New teachers certified by Shiva Nata Master after such courses will have rights to teach
other students during group or individual classes or workshops, but they will not have
rights to certify other teachers.
(I had planned to propose to Havi that she would become the first official Shiva Nata
Master with the official right to certify others as teachers, but she has preferred to reflect
on her own, for one year).
4. If some of the teachers will be inspired to produce any products for sale related to Shiva
Nata, they must pay a royalty to me as compensation of my work for the development of
Shiva Nata. The amount of royalty will be always reasonable and must be discussed
individually depending of the individual product(s) and the amount of work input by each
person taking a part in the production of such products. Such teachers will be required to
sign a licensing agreement with Universal Yoga Institute.
I will soon developed high educational standards for every level of Shiva Nata. Such
standards will be perfected in the future. All the teachers who will be involved in the
certification of others as teachers will be required to follow these educational standards in
order to support a high level of Shiva Nata teaching in general.
Soon, there will be a special website will containing information about all certified Shiva
Nata teachers, their levels and personal profiles with pictures and contact information. This
web-site will also have the function of announcing upcoming Shiva Nata events in different
cities and contain a limited forum for communication between certified Shiva Nata teachers
with maps of where to find Shiva Nata teachers and studios.
Supporting the Shiva Nata Educational Institution will require financial resources. That is
why I have started a process of registration for The Shiva Nata National Association. All
officially certified teachers will pay some reasonable membership fee as a donation for the
functioning of this Association, so as to have the required financial support for website
moderation and other administrative functions.
Such work will need enthusiastic people and I am ready to discuss potential candidates, if
there are among you in the Shiva Nata community, any interested volunteers to help with
these beginnings.
In the future this Association can organize Shiva Nata conferences in the USA and other
countries.
It is time for all certified teachers to think about opening Shiva Nata studios in their cities
soon.
Important!
What will happen with certified by Havi teachers?
I totally realize that if I cancel the certificates given by Havi, it can upset many students
who could in turn sue Havi for misrepresentation of her official qualifications from me. And I
myself have every reason to be upset by Havi's certification of others as teachers without
her even asking me about such a possibility. But my Karma does not depend of Havi's
Karma. That is why I'm not going to react in any negative way at her actions.

I don't wish for Havi any conflict with her students. I will not ask all certified by Havi
teachers to repeat their training courses again, if they can pass my practical and
theoretical exams successfully without going through my programs. In this case, they will
not need to pay for an additional Teachers Training course again.
I will, however, ask teachers with a certificate from Havi, to take an examination with me.
This is a must.
I will happily give appropriate certificates to all the teachers who pass the exam
successfully. These teachers will only need to show their certificates from Havi, pay the
required exam fee (the exam fee will be 8% out of the full price of Havi's certification
course for now), and to pass my exam successfully to get an official, legal certificate from
me.
They are also welcome to participate in my Shiva Nata TT with full payment, if they want
to, but this is not absolutely necessary, and is completely optional for them.
If some teachers certified by Havi will not be able to pass the exams successfully, their
certificates will be void and invalid until they can perfect their practice and theoretic
knowledge to the necessary standards and until they can pass the exams successfully.
If exams must be repeated, they must to also repeat the payment of their exam fee each
and every time they retake the exam (practical and/or written).
If somebody will ignore my certification process, and will continue to teach using Havi's
certificates for more than one year from the date of this letter, they will be legally pursued
in a very active way.
It should only take one year for all teachers holding certificates from Havi to be exchanged
into certificates legally dispensed by me. And it is up to the teachers holding certificates
from Havi to seek me out for this exchange - not the other way around.
I hope this compromise and transition will be not too hard for those certified by Havi. And I
hope everything will be smooth.
I ask all teachers holding certificates from Havi to keep peace and to not create any drama
or gossip or psychological pressure toward Havi. This is potentially a hard time for her and
there is no reason to make anything more hard. Nobody will get any benefit out of such
actions. Havi did a lot of good for the Shiva Nata community. She just did some things not
perfect and it must be realised by her.
So, please leave Havi in peace for her complete reflection and important realisations
during the next year (or less).
I'm in the process of writing of new book and I'm extremely busy now. That is why I would
like to ask members of Shiva Nata community to please not write individual letters to me.

Unnecessary interruptions can potentially destroy my creative work, so please allow your
questions and propositions to accumulate and assign perhaps one designee who will write
one summarizing letter to me not more than once per every two weeks. And please, not
such a long letter as I have written here. I simply will not be able to reply.
I am planning to lead an upcoming Shiva Nata certification course during the end of May
2013, and you can plan to participate in all of this course or to take part in examinations
only.
Please contact Kalyani (kalyani@kalinata.net) or Erin (erin.cn.busby@gmail.com) for
details and to arrange your personal participation. We are currently working out pricing and
hours. Please allow a few weeks for these details to be set up. We will likely be ready to
take deposits and registrations for this training/exam time, after the New Year.
Also there can be those of you who would also like to host additional Shiva Nata training(s)
in your area either next Fall or in 2014. Please contact Mara Healy, my USA assistant, if
you have this interest, at: mara.yoga@yahoo.com
I wish to all Shiva Nata practitioners success and I hope to bring to the Shiva Nata
community a deeper understanding of the Shiva Nata system during my courses and in my
instructional products.
Thank you for your time, understanding and support.
Peace and Light.
Vajra Raja (Andrey Lappa)

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