Collective Spotlight: Matthew Andrews
Meet Matthew! Matthew is a yoga teacher, singer, songwriter, entrepreneur, nonprofit executive, bhakta, and the co-director of Shraddhā Yoga. He leads monthly kirtans at Sanctuary, and will be leading a Yoga Immersion and Teacher Training with his partner Corinne Matthews at Sanctuary, beginning October 2024.
Why did you want to become a yoga teacher and kirtan singer?
I didn’t want to or decide to become a teacher or a singer. In 2013 I was working in senior leadership for a big NGO with a very corporate culture. I didn’t like it but didn’t see a way out. When (my wife) Corinne and I decided to buy Yoga Center Amherst in 2014, I kept that job because I thought we would need both incomes. As the yoga business took off, I went to part time, and then quit the NGO job completely. Once we were ‘all in’ on the yoga business, I started teaching asana classes - partly because I had time and partly because I was curious. Also, since I was managing a yoga studio I figured I should know something about teaching yoga.
I’ve studied yoga philosophy by reading translations and commentaries on yoga texts, and eventually learning enough Sanskrit to engage directly with the originals. I’ve always loved yoga teachings and felt at home in India, which I first visited in 2000. So teaching philosophy in the teacher trainings also evolved naturally. When Corinne started leading the trainings at Yoga Center Amherst in 2015, I would come in from time to time to talk about different texts and give lessons on Sanskrit pronunciation. But I usually had to be with our kids while Corinne was teaching the full training days, so I just dropped in here and there. During COVID, when we were teaching from home online, I got more involved with the overall training and started developing a philosophy curriculum, which has now evolved into two books about yoga philosophy that should be available soon as ebooks.
As for singing, after I led my first bhakti yoga retreat in the himalayan foothills in 2017, I came back with a burning need to sing mantras. It was more a matter of channeling the energy than about deciding whether or not to do it. Singing has become a way for me to share my inner life and my love for God with people. Sharing this ‘practice’ nourishes me and supports my spiritual growth.
What have you gained from this work?
When I’m teaching yoga philosophy or singing, I don’t ever feel like I’m ‘working’, in the way that word is usually used. I feel like I’m sharing myself, my heart, and my passion for Indian indigenous wisdom traditions. I feel joy, connection, belonging, gratitude, and just general goodness.
I also am nourished by my own practices - asana, meditation, singing mantras, prayer, guru yoga, and in a general way releasing attachment to the fruits of my actions. My inner life is rich, mystical, and full of feeling. The fact that my outer life’s work is aligned and supportive of my inner life, and that my inner life is welcome to flow outward, is a profound gift. And not to mention the fact that this work brings me to India year after year, where my heart feels at home and my soul breathes freely.
What do you hope your students/clients feel after working with you?
I always try to teach in a way that connects the ancient teachings of yoga with a modern life. I hope that students feel they understand yoga better, and I hope that they understand themselves and their life circumstances better too. I hope they come away with a sense of how to integrate the teachings of yoga into their daily lives, relationships, decisions, and self experience.
How does your work inform your activism or understanding of the world?
I understand the fundamental teaching of yoga to be that we are one with all that exists, and we are moving toward a total realization of that reality. I understand yoga as the intentional engagement with that realization, the conscious aspiration to discover and release the obstacles to knowing who we are. My teaching and singing are rooted in these understandings.
Saying that I am one with everything that exists can be an abstract idea or a belief. It can be compartmentalized, so that I feel expansive in some circumstances and contracted in others. I look at my everyday life and try to find the beliefs, behaviors, assumptions, and fears that prevent this experience from taking hold and flowing freely through me at all times. I feel supported by the broader evolution of consciousness that flows through all humanity and the Earth itself. I feel the current that carries us all toward the truth that is love, so I know I’m not alone or unsupported in my seeking.
To me, activism means staying open to the pain of others without falling into despair or anger. It means staying open to the flow of God’s guidance in my life and taking it seriously. It means being myself and not who I think I should be. And it means releasing entitlement to emotions and ideas that pass through me: attending to them as they arise and then letting them go.
What's your favorite season of the year, and why?
I love summer in Massachusetts and winter in Tamil Nadu. I love to be outside and to hear birds singing and wear less clothes. I love the ocean and the forest and the warmth of the sun. I get cold easily and have a hard time with the cold, and I don’t like socks and sweaters and heavy clothes.
What has made you smile recently that you feel the need to share?
I’m currently reading a biography of Yogi Ramsuratkumar, who lived in Tiruvannamalai until he left his body in the early 2000s. He was whimsical, loving, and profoundly surrendered. Practical mystical teachings flowed through him freely and spontaneously, and he lived outside most social norms. He lived on the streets and only ate food that was offered to him for many years before anyone noticed that he was special. In many of the stories about him, the author mentions his laughter, and uses words like rollicking, uproariously, vigorously, cackling, joyous, and enthusiastic.
Yogi Ramsuratkumar taught that only God exists, nothing else, no one else. He performed supernatural feats and attracted thousands of devotees in his later years. And he offered his entire being to serve God and humanity in every moment. As I read, I feel the sweetness and ferocity of this beautiful being, and I smile as I imagine him laughing with absolute abandon and singing and dancing in free flowing, unfiltered devotion.
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