THE SE(X)NSUAL YOGINI!What made the super sexy Shilpa Shetty turn yogini? Shilpa tells Nona Walia how she's emotionally empowered and looking super hot because of yoga! And now, she's even going to a retreat to rearrange her past life karma!
SHILPA SHETTY’S social diary is full.
If this sexy siren desires, she’d be partying till wee hours every night. Yet, she chooses to break the rules and indulge in her new-found maturity. She’s packing to go to a Oneness camp for the weekend. Why? “I’ve got to calculate my past life karma quotient. So, I’m just going to a meditation camp at the Oneness University of Kalki Bhagwan. That’s the place Nicole Kidman also went to find peace. I know, I’m going to return transformed.”
When you walk into the incredible world of Shilpa Shetty. It’s difficult not to believe her miracle story. After all, she’s walking into them almost every other day. Curiously, I ask her what makes the very sensual Shilpa Shetty experiment with past life regression? “Sigh! I want to learn how to be a survivor in this competitive world.”
We guess, she means being the ultimate survivor. “I guess so, I want to learn to be a happy individual. It’s sort of a past life regression, you learn about your past karma and try to rearrange it. It’s an emotional, karmic healing. I want to learn what wrong I did in my last life, so that I get healed and don’t have to suffer. Everyone needs to cleanse their karma, I need the healing. Once you understand, you can be a better person.” Now, it’s not everyday, a Bollywood diva wants to take the road to inner transformation. So, why would the ultimate glamour queen, current global face of Bollywood want to ‘heal and transform’? “You could say, I’m an eternal yogini.
Yoga’s changed me. So, here you have the sensual, sexy Shilpa turn into a spiritual calm being. Yoga has calmed me. I was always spiritual even as a child. I was taught to pray, show gratitude. We had an attitude of gratitude. Even if life was ugly, bad or sad – we prayed.” Shilpa’s ‘Om’ moment with yoga has been interesting. “When I was doing martial arts, I used to do some relaxation asanas, as you need discipline and self-control.
Then five years ago, I had spondylitis, that’s when I seriously started practicing. Since, three years, I’ve been into Ashtanga yoga. In London, I would teach yoga to my housemaids every morning. Yoga happened to me, I didn’t go seeking it. Now, my yoga album is topping all charts. Shilpa’s yoga isn’t new-age or complicated. Rather, I’ve simplified it. I haven’t included Surya Namaskar because it is very complicated. I just wanted to give yogic quick-fixes to
people who live a fast-paced life.”
However, Shlipa’s survival guide to life is easy to practice. “My transformation hasn’t been a one night stand. It’s been slow, gradual. I’m a calmer individual. Of course, we’re living in
a world of such farce. But I needed to take time out for my personal self. You have to be willing to make the change in yourself. The best way to survive life is – never fret over what you don’t get. There’s a bigger plan for you. I wasn’t doing very well in Bollywood, and then Big Brother changed my destiny.”
Are you Destiny’s child? “Absolutely,” adds Shilpa, “I’m destiny’s child. I wasn’t meant to be born, my mother bled for four months when she was pregnant, and then she fell down the stairs in her eighth month of pregnancy. She nearly died, I believe I came into this world for a reason.”
She’s in a chatty mood, ecstatic over life and good things. What’s the secret of looking so terrific? “Everybody tells me, Shilpa you’ve never looked better. I quite agree. I think it’s yoga. The glow comes from within, it reflects on your skin and stays longer.” She’s been learning how to play the violin for Sunny Deol’s movie The Man. “It was the toughest thing I did in my life. Look, I’ve even developed biceps now. My instructor tells me most people give up learning in the first three days itself. I just wanted to be authentic while playing in the film.”
Do you believe in soulmates Shilpa? “Why even Paulo Coelho has said, ‘we have more than one soulmate’. I believe we move in soul groups, we meet the same people over different lifetimes, we have to finish the unfinished business with those people. And when we do, they walk away from our lives. I’m a great believer of Brian Weiss theory too. I enjoyed his Love is for Real. All the people you meet in this life are connected to you in your past lives.”
Just before we get too carried away with the off-the-shelf spiritual talk, she fiercely reinforces, how she loves the good things in life. “Why I work hard to enjoy materialism. I love the good things. I love my Versace dresses, diamonds, cars. I’m not apologetic about enjoying the good things in life.”
