YOGI ISHA

Birth name in the Wozniak family – Yurii.
Spiritual name received in the Himalayan yogic lineage through Pilot Baba (Somnath Giri) – Yogi Isha.

From early adolescence, I devoted myself seriously to sports. Around the same time, an interest in yoga arose. The discipline and willpower required in long-distance running and marathon training harmonized well with yogic practice; demanding hours of training and regular competitions gradually turned the body into an instrument for the cultivation of the spirit. Yet yoga became something greater than a passion – silently, it brought transformation. Seventeen years of intense athletic training became a step toward the realization of my spiritual nature. Hardened by regular practice, I eventually met my Guru, Pilot Babaji.

Long before I took up sports, already in early childhood, I loved playing with my grandfather’s musical instruments. When I received my first guitar, I began sketching out sounds and shapes upon its strings. Subsequently, yoga and meditation began to influence me, and the guitar became a ship on which I set sail for treasures found by diving into the depths of my soul. Music and word, expressed through an instrument and through voice, became the most natural way to convey – first of all to myself – messages from the very center of existence, from the source where love and life are born.

The need for music eventually took form in the creation and manifestation of the musical project – Shakti Orchestra.