Mas Vidal in Shiva Pose - Image courtesy of Mas Vidal

Coming across Mas Vidal — during one of his informative seminars on the benefits of combining the ancient sciences of Yoga and Ayurveda for a complete body and soul makeover, or in his Yoga classes at Dancing Shiva in LA — is like taking in a giant breath full of crisp, fresh Himalayan air. But his charm and charisma don’t end there, as Vidal is one of the few Yogis able to communicate to others his path and enlightened journey in very clear and tangible terms. Gone are the typical language barriers and age divisions which students encounter when trying to learn such fantastic doctrines from men who have an inborn understanding of them but lack the skills to pass the knowledge on. With his soulful voice and tranquil demeanor, Vidal is the perfect modern-day promoter of those ancient Indian sciences. And the poster man of what a healthy diet, quiet mind and disciplined existence will help you achieve in life.

I recently sat down with him, outside Dancing Shiva on a warm, sunny day in Los Angeles, while birds chirped all around and the scent of freshly-cut lawns delighted us.

CHIC TODAY: Can you talk a little bit about how you got into Yoga and Ayurveda?

MAS VIDAL: It happened when I was in college. I wanted to know these deeper questions of life… Like “Why do we exist?”, “What’s the purpose of life?”, “What am I doing here?”, “Why was I born into this family?” and “What is the history of humanity?” So I kept questioning and wanted to learn more about that. I didn’t know. I started to look around, read books and things. From a very young age I had wanted to move out here, to California, from Miami where I lived.

CT: Were you born in Florida?

MV: I was born in Chicago, actually, but did not spend much time there.

CT: Your background is Cuban right?

MV: Yes. I always say I have Cuban blood, an American heart and an Indian soul. So I started looking and searching, studying religions. I came out here – to Los Angeles – and interestingly enough, the one person I knew here, the only person, was a woman who had been married to a cousin of my dad. She happened to be a celebrity – Miss USA – so I contacted her and she helped me out getting my foot in the door in the city. One day she said “Lets go to Yoga together!” I was a two-hundred pound muscle man at the time and I thought “Why not, lets try it out”. I went, I tried it and I liked it and she also introduced me to Ayurveda when we went to a center, the Maharishi TM Meditation Center where they had some Ayurvedic things. Little by little it all started to stick and not long after that, about a year later, I ran across the teachings of Paramahansa Yogananda and that was pretty much it. I knew that I had found something very special when I started to read his books.

CT: Was that your lightbulb moment, coming across his teachings?

MV: The break in my consciousness happened in college. When I broke up with my college girlfriend, I experienced being heartbroken. And that moment I thought “This can’t be the human purpose of life!? The pain that I am feeling, there’s gotta be a deeper love to this”. It was then that I started my super-quest, when I was 21. And then I got to Yogananda’s teachings. I read that while I was studying other things, Buddhism and just anything religious and spiritual. But his stuff just blew me away. It made me want to be a monk, make yoga the purpose of my life, self realization and all these things. And then later I got more into the Asanas, the postures.When I ran into the principles of Ayurveda, it seemed interesting. I didn’t know much about it, only that it was an Indian discipline, when I ran across a book a gentleman had written about the unity of Yoga and Ayurveda and with that book I knew that was it! These are the two lost sister sciences of India – I thought – they will be the most popular sciences of India in the world and they will promote the best on Indian life, culture, history, spirituality. They represent the essence of Indian purpose – Dharma – and living. After reading that book I went off to India, studied some more, got back and began teaching Yoga. That’s when I opened Dancing Shiva.

CT: What year was that?

MV: End of 2000. It just happened, it was a spur of the moment decision.

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