Pune Update — Bobby Clennell

BACKBENDS!!!

Pune 2012 — Bobby Clennell

My youngest son Jake and I arrived in Pune on Wednesday 1st February at around 4 am. I attended a 9.30 am Women’s class taught by Guruji and Abhijata. It was a special “jet lag class”. We began with some supported inversions, some of which I had never seen done in quite the same way before. This is my 19th trip to Pune — the first was in 1976 — and I don’t know why I am surprised that they are still coming up with new material!

Viparita Karani/Sirsasana: Sit backwards on a chair with the knees bent over the back of the chair rest. Slide back off chair and place the crown of the head on a vertical bolster. Thread your arms through the chair and hold the back legs. There was much emphasis on lifting through the dorsal spine.

Viparita Dandasana: Sit backwards through the chair. Curve back around the chair seat. Support top of the back of your head on a vertical bolster, and your feet on blocks. Hold the back legs of the chair.

Viparita Karani/Sarvangasana: Proceed as for chair Sarvangasana, with your shoulders resting on a horizontal bolster and the back of the head on the floor, but rather than extending your legs out, bend them over the back of the chair rest. As for regular chair Sarvangasana, there was lots of lifting through the dorsal spine.

Setu Bandasana. Sit backward through the chair. Keeping your knees bent, slide back off the edge of the chair and place the back of your head on a vertical bolster (build up the height of the bolster as needed).

Then, just when you thought that this was going to be a restorative class, we went straight into some simple, but extremely vigorous standing poses (including lots of Adho Mukha Svanasana).

This class was just what was needed to throw off the fatigue and fuzzy-headedness of the journey.

Geetaji taught pranayama on Thursday and standing poses on Friday — fabulous classes both of course. Guruji and Abhyjata taught Saturday’s women’s class, and it reminded me of Guruji’s classes in the 70s. This was a “remembering–what–it’s–like–to–be–taught–by–a–master” sort of a class. There’s just no other way of putting it!

Maty Ezraty doing Pincha Myorasana in the practice session

Mary Reilly in the practice room

One evening a few of us attended a Sufi music festival. Parvathy Bauul from the Bauul sect was the last act. She chanted and danced, and twirled, causing her hem length dreadlocks to swing and flare out like a mandala. It was all meditation for her and a part of her practice. Here is a clip of her from You Tube, although you lose much of the electrifying affect that you get when she is right there in front of you.

Bauul is the equivalent of Sufi in India, particularly in Bengal, where Parvathy comes from. Her impressive beauty, her personality and the intensity of her devotional chanting and rotating dance, Dervish style, make her unique. I will never forget her, or that class with Guruji and Abhyjata.

Guruji then left with Abhyjata and a group of students and teachers for a yoga convention in Bangalore. It had been fascinating watching him in the practice room each morning, coaching his students for a yoga demonstration that they were putting on at the convention.

On Tuesday (almost one week into the course) Prashant taught a class “for the mind”. About half way through the class he directed us through some nostril breathing as we practiced standing poses. Sounds fairly ordinary I know, but taught by Prashantji, it was profound. It was after that class that I finally shook off my jet lag and slept through the night.

With Guruji gone (and also Geetaji, who had gone to Calcutta for another yoga convention), we were left in the good hands of three truly excellent Instiute teachers, Navaz Kamdin, Rajlaxmi, and Gulnaas, and later, when Guruji and his entourage returned, Abhijata Iyengar and Raya Ud also taught.

Last night Prashantji taught a challenging back bends class. The sequence included: Padmasana/Setu Bandasana over a block, and Padmasana/Viparita Dandasana on a chair, Ustrasana, and Viparita Dandasana from the ropes. The objective was to come out of the class feeling as cool and calm (Prashantji used the word “sanctified”) as we had after his forward bend class “for the mind”.

This morning, Guruji taught a truly profound and masterful class with Abhyjata. We came onto the points of the fingers whenever the hand was on the floor (Parivrtta Ardha Chandrasana, a version of Virabadrasana III with hands on the floor in frount of us, and Bharadvajasana I: “tiger claws”!).

We are exactly at the halfway point of the month.

Richard Jonas

I love Sunday mornings on Model Colony. There is no traffic. Everything is quiet. I stroll down to the neighborhood café, Lalit Mahal, for breakfast: upma and real coffee. The owner was starting the day with a puja for his garlanded deity, and the fragrance of incense permeates the entire place.

Puja

Interior of the Lalite Mahal

Update from Pune, by Richard Jonas

Everyone Emails that New York -- and much of the U.S. -- is unnervingly warm, no winter yet, but Pune’s February is the coldest in a decade, 4 degrees Celsius this morning as I walk to Prashant-ji’s early morning class, the sky still midnight-dark, the white moon overhead as full and bright as when I walked home last night.

The Punites shiver and pile on track jackets, scarves and woolen caps, but by afternoon it is warm and sunny, even clear, it seems, though the pollution is as bad as ever (on our Sunday off, I work from the Lung series in the back of Light on Yoga), the traffic rather worse.

Guruji and Abhijata, Raya and a few others have left for the Health For All International Conference on Yoga, Naturopathy and Aromatherapy Expo in Bangalore. They spent their time in the Asana Hall our first week here readying for a demonstration lecture, which is said to be Guruji’s last public teaching. My first day here was his first back in the Asana Hall in shorts, his wracking cough of last month cleared up, and I am told later that his teaching in Bangalore is energetic and commanding. Geetaji, too, after giving us two brilliant classes, has left for a conference in Calcutta for two weeks, so we are figurative orphans here, left behind, but it is a good chance to study with the Indian assistants, the lesser-known members of the faculty at R.I.M.Y.I. I have taken class with them before, but many of the students know them only from their helpful suggestions during our daily practice sessions.

Geetaji teaches us Virabhadrasana I completely from the shoulder blades – so we do it completely without pushing in at the lumbar. Abhijata taught several times before she left, notably interpreting Guruji during the Ladies’ Classes. In his long, propped backbends and inversions, Guruji talks to her, and she, with all the time more confidence and clarity, as well as her own developing personality and style as a teacher, interprets his words for the students.

Do not do according to convenience, Abhijata instructs. Leave out old ideas – leave out old samskaras. How many of you are open to see that new samskara of Halasana? Use your body as a prop to culture your intelligence.

Nawaz, one of Guruji’s students and teachers for decades, teaches a few classes while the group is gone, quoting “our Guruji” with nearly every instruction; she combines a gentle, motherly manner with demanding, crystal-clear instructions. “Once we understand the proper skeletal-muscular movements of the body, we can never go wrong,” she says.

“Let the breath be the benefit, the benefactor and the beneficiary” in your work, Prashant tells us. If you donate to a generous person, many people benefit as the largesse is passed on; so it is with the breath.

Each in their own way, interpreting Guruji.

I have been working on the Institute Archives, filing slides of the original photos from Light on Yoga which Martin Brading then scans for preservation. I've seen pictures of Guruji doing incredible asanas, meeting with the famous like Pope John XXIII, visiting yoga centers and Institutes around the world, including ours in New York. At another desk, students file letters testifying to the great benefits of Guruji’s work.

There is a big New York contingent in Pune, including Faculty teachers Carrie Owerko, my housemate, Bobby Clennell, Carolyn Christie and me, plus Association teachers Marcia Monroe and Harshad Shah, who has Bobby, Martin, Association member from Woodstock, NY, and me over for a lavish Jain lunch. Also here: Association members Alisa Grifo and filmmaker Jake Clennell, Bobby and Lindsey’s son, who travels to Bangalore to film Guruji’s teaching.

The authorities are on an ‘anti-Encroachment’ drive on Ferguson College Road; a week ago, a big truck came by and sliced off the front porch of Roopali, where we go for upma and chai after 7 a.m. class. Evidently it was projecting into the public right-of-way, but by the next morning they had built it right back up and tables were set up again for breakfast

An election is underway here, as in the U.S., and we come home to handbills stuffed under the door; roving trucks move up and down the streets sending out highly-amplified political announcements in Marathi. -- Richard Jonas

RIMYI Annual Celebration Day - Jan 2012

Annual Celebration Day

This weekend was the Annual Celebration Day at the RIMYI– really two separate days, starting with a Children’s performance on Saturday evening.

From the moment we arrived at RIMYI we knew it was a special night, as beautiful garlands of flowers were draped high above the front gate. We left our shoes by the entrance and walked on a long red carpet from the gate to the hall entrance. Inside the hall, the platform was transformed to a stage, with evocative sets, lights, microphones, and video cameras all ready.

The room then came to life and was filled with music, dancing, and dramatic performances that were absolutely beautiful! The children were dressed in festive Indian attire. Their dedication showed in flawless memorization, presenting for us a traditional story of Maharashtra (the state in which Pune is located). There were hundreds of spectators and we all sat quite snugly on the floor, sharing mats, blankets, and bolsters. At the end, each child gave her/his name for individual recognition, followed by a long round of applause by the audience!

The festivities continued on Sunday morning, beginning with local students—including three medical practitioners--from the Institute speaking from experience of how their practice of yoga has influenced their professional lives. A foreign student spoke of the healing she’s experienced directly from Guruji, Geeta and Prashant. After a break for chai and cookies, we were treated to an impressive display of authentic Indian music, singing, and dancing began that had everyone swaying and applauding. For many, the highlight of Sunday was a young girl (maybe 9 years old) who hopped up on the platform from the audience – very unassuming in her red shirt, black shorts and two pigtail braids – then took center stage and as the music started, performed a sequence of yoga poses that were amazing! She moved effortlessly from standing poses to backbends, arm balances, inversions and of course performing many while in padmasana! The crowd was in awe of her ability, grace and clear devotion to the practice.

After the performances, a feast of delicious traditional Indian food awaited us outside. It was a beautiful afternoon to meet and mingle with those we rarely have time to speak with in the regular routine of a day.

This morning (Monday), the practice hall was back to normal, but everyone seemed to move at a little different pace – with a bit more awareness, intelligence, and appreciation of this gift we receive by being here this month and experiencing Iyengar Yoga at RIMYI.

Ann McDermott-Kave

Happy New Year from lucienne

Hi Folks,

I am reading that the last post was entered about a year ago and that there are only a few followers, so go ahead and click on all those keys on your dashboard to befriend others on this blog so that it grows and grows and grows.

I arrived in Pune at the end of last year and spent New Years Day sleeping in my Pune appartment. This is my 4th time, so I know how to 'behave' in the beginning days to allow the system to adjust to everything that is different here. Typically as with all muladhara disturbances in the first days we experienced a flooding kitchen due to a broken sink pipe, a blocked toilet and a complete black-out. Fortunately these were outside obstacles and easily removed as Ganesha was trumpeting in full galore after just being showered with praise and fragrantly flowered into the New Year.

On January 2nd I went to the Institute for practice but before that the HighLight was to wish Guruji my wishes for the New Year and to bow before him, the Greatest Teacher and our Inspiration. Later during practice I heard him cough a lot and realized that he was not well. In the following days he practiced at his house and had to take antibiotics due to a chest infection. Nevertheless, until he could absolutely not, he was practicing with us and showing us to practice even during vyadhi. He was having coughing attacks and had to do simple forward bending over a stool with his forehead resting on a pillow to calm the spasms of the lungs.

It was profound and touching to see this as in everything he does there is a lesson for us. Don't stop your practice, adjust it.

Now he is back, looking good and well-rested. He has been co-teaching with his grand daughter Abhijata and is joyfully teaching/practicing surrounded by his intimate indian clan.

The classes have been energizing even though it is quite busy at this moment. There have been days that there were not enough mats for everyone. (There is a lack of mats in general and I urge all of you to bring your yoga mat and leave it here like we used to. Many mats in the Institute are overused and quite honestly disgusting.)

Most classes are taught by the Iyengars to my delight. To see Geetaji 3 times this week for the general, woman's and Pranayama was amazing. She looks so much better than 2 years ago and her teaching has been no-nonsense: if you are new you go upstairs (beginners studio) and if you are 'stupid' she does not waste her time with you anymore. We are all to be super alert and move fast; instructions are very minimal, poses follow in quick succession and can be challenging and you get to experience a lot when she says nothing and let's you be in the pose.

There is a minimum use of props, both to save time with so many people but also to remove the crutches that people bring to the practice. She allows you to keep practicing part of the pose, like ardha padmasana, if the full pose does not come, but she will move on with the rest of the class to the zenith.

To receive teachings from the masters you have to be practicing for years, no kidding. Geetaji teaches you how to think and where you are lacking in your personal practice. It is that place she is aiming for; she does not teach teachers to teach points so they can teach those points to their students. In fact she mocks with that concept. She teaches us how to look at ourselves in our practice, so from that insight, the teaching should come. She keeps telling us how she was never 'taught' by her father, but that it was by observing him that she learned.

Class with Abhijata has been wonderful; she is very talented, clear and joyful as a teacher and has the ability to switch fluently between being a stately teacher and a humble student during class times. She has been teaching with clear alignment themes that run through the class: the lifting of the back arch in standing poses, the inner thighs and the anterior/posterior tailbone in inversions, the upper knee cap activation and how to lengthen the inner and outer knee ligaments evenly....etc, to name a few. All great things to take you deeper.

Class with Prashant has been the least surprising/changing however brilliant and inspiring as always. He keeps on challenging us to find out what the practice of all these asanas is about. He encourages us to strip of the external layers of perfection of asanas and find the inner perfection by questioning ourselves, by doing poses for different goals, by applying kriyas, bandhas, by breath modifications, timings etc. He is all about the study of the 'embodiment', the YOG, not the yogaaaaaaaaaaah! Yesterday he said that we should practice for 'lifetime contentment'. This is one of the treasures that YOG offers.

Next week is Institute Day.

Namaste to all,

lucienne vidah

....and I would love to share Geetaji's sitting/padma class with you in February at the Institute during the Tuesday Teachers class at 10am. Please check the schedule.

Update from Richard in Pune

Having watched tens of thousands of dazed, dusty people pass under my windows as they walked uptown from the wreckage of the Towers, hearing still that uncanny silence of 9/11, I don’t think I’ll ever be touched as nearly by terrorism, but the bombing of the German Bakery hits very close to what is for many a second, or third, home here. This sort of thing is not supposed to happen in Pune. Pune is “safe”, “normal”, a haven where in between being taught and practicing and absorbing yoga, one is privileged to observe the rich Indian family life, eat Indian food, be part of the orderly disorder and disorderly order of India, where it seems that nothing will work yet everything does.

I didn’t know about the attack until the next morning; some others I know heard or felt the blast; a surgeon from New York had been in the bakery not long before. Someone knows a friend of an Italian woman, studying meditation at Osho, one of the nine dead.

Things are changed, at least a little and as must be. The Monday morning after, we gathered around Guruji – a reassuring presence – in the Institute lobby. A student from Singapore brought him flowers for the Year of the Tiger; Stephanie Quirk talked about the pair of saving-from-extinction tigers Guruji has adopted. At evening class, Chandru announced students are not to gather outside the gate, by the cocoanut water man and the vegetable woman, least R.I.M.Y.I. become one of those danger magnets where foreigners congregate, “soft targets” as the Times of India calls them. A guard may search your bag at the gate now, but with a smile and a friendly sidewise nod of the head.

What’s important, of course, is the teaching, and that is unchanged, perhaps even more intense, more compelling for being more compelled. In each class Geetaji mentions her coming retirement, and implores, demands, wills us to absorb her lifetime accumulation of knowledge and skill.

We’ve moved into rajas with backbend week, and the weather is appropriately hot and clear-sunny. Geetaji made of the placement of the foot, our presence in our heels, a teaching of Dharana. Do with the body, she said, let the brain be quiet. Backbends are hard work, but the truly difficult action is not just to push, Geeta says, to do; instead, we have to remain inside, senses drawn within to observe. Be with yourself, she says, be with your soul. A long string of Urdhva Dhanurasanas is taught almost entirely from the feet: heels which do not leave the floor, a strong platform of the big toe mound, inner ankle bones lifted, outer edges of the foot cutting knifelike into the floor: Dharana. Afterwards, in Paschimottanasana, legs wide apart, back muscles spreading from center to the side, the frontal armpit chest drawing us forward, Geeta -- teaching purely in terms of the body -- creates a profound quiet in the mind.

In the Ladies’ Class Geeta has students cue up to work at the tall and small stools, the stump and the roller and the Viparita Karini plank. That afternoon Horst from Germany, Hendrik from Poland, Jerry from the U.K. and I replay the setups, adjusting one another.

Last Friday, in one of her truly magical Pranayama classes, Geetaji has us find space at the base of the neck, where it joins the dorsal spine, and at the top, at the base of the skull. The very physical instructions become a bridge to combining Sama (balance) and Sthira (firmness) in our sitting, and a bridge to the Bhagavad Gita, VI:13, when Lord Krishna instructs Arjuna in meditation. Look for stillness first, Geeta says, then within that, find freedom. With this alignment of the neck, the brain becomes quiet, doesn’t wander, she says. We practice an adjustment which brings us deeper into Pratyhara.

Gloria Goldberg is here, arranging for tickets for Geetaji and the assistants to fly to Portland for the May convention for Certified Iyengar Yoga teachers. Often in the morning, Guruji works an important politician, deputy chief minister Chhagan Bhujbal, who’s accompanied by a dozen Pune police offers and security men. Pune has done what New York has not, banning plastic bags; you have to carry a cloth or jute bag to the vegetable seller.

Geeta talks, in nearly every class, about making us understand, passing on the knowledge she holds so surely. She is retiring, she says; sometimes she tells the assistants, No, don’t make them do, don’t help them – I have told them for years, if they haven’t got it now … More often, though, she reaches deeper inside, makes her instructions even more precise, brings more fervor. “That is why I shout!” she says. The Iyengars will be away next week, for a family wedding, and we all talk about that. The idea that Geetaji might not be teaching the next time we return to Pune, though, is more difficult to grasp. A teacher friend tells me, Even if Geeta isn’t teaching, I will always come back, to see Guruji. And somehow that, at least, seems eternal.

Women's class

It turns out that the person Guruji is working on is deputy chief minister Chhagan Bhujal, not someone in the police force as I had mentioned in my last blog. This interesting story can be found in DNA, an Asian on-line news service:

http://www.dnaindia.com/mumbai/report_bhujbal-flies-daily-for-date-with-yoga-guru_1347135

Wonderful women’s class with Geetaji yesterday. We are still in backbend week. One of the things we did was to curve back away from the rope wall, tailbone over the stump, legs extended to rope wall. The stump was placed between two sets of ropes which we held. The taller people held the tall ropes, with another set of ropes slipped through the ends. We curved back and placed our head on a bolster. There were many interesting setups, and I am looking forward to teaching them when I get back!

Namaste,

Bobby Clennell