IYAGNY Teachers Pune Blog

RIMYI Annual Celebration Day - Jan 2012

2012-01-23T08:12:00.000-08:00

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

2012-01-14T19:57:00.000-08:00

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

2010-02-18T00:43:00.001-08:00

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

2010-02-17T17:26:00.000-08:00

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

Back bend week

2010-02-15T09:08:00.000-08:00

Monday in Pune
February 15, 2010 by bobbyclennell
Day one of back bend week. We pretty well went straight into Urdhva Dhanurasana. We started with Adho Mukha Virasana, Adho Mukha Svanasana, Prassarita Paddotanasana and Sirsasana, then pushed up into Urdhva Dhanurasana. We did lots of them. Emphasis on turning the toes in and lifting them. Pressing the outer heels down and keeping the heels pressed down as we came up, first onto the crown and then completely up. To bring the hands and feet closer together, we walked the hands in. We were not to disturb the feet! In order not to drop the outer body, we compressed the outer hips in and broadened the back hips and buttocks.

After class Chandru announced to the class that we were no longer to congregate outside of the main gates to the Institute, or even inside. Groups of foreigners are soft targets. It’s very bad news for the coconut man and the vegatable lady who’s livlihoods depend on the Iyengar students.

Namaste,

Bobby Clennell

Terrible news from Pune

2010-02-14T02:00:00.000-08:00

Got home last night to hear the terrible news that the German bakery had been blown up. Quite a few students had narrow escapes and were very shaken up. One had seen the blast and quite a few others had heard it. All our hearts go out to the kids that were over there last night, the foreigners, the locals and the people who worked there.

It's strange, because there was a conciderable police presence in and around RIYMI last week. Guruji was working on someone high up in the police force who has two very seriously frozen shoulders to the point where he could hardly use his hands. (We have since discovererd that he had heart problems). He had the undivided attention of the great Master himself, B.K.S. Iyengar, plus many assistants getting props etc.

You feel nothing but friendliness here from the local population.

Peace and blessings.

Bobby Clennell

Jnanendriyas

2010-02-13T07:50:00.000-08:00

Geeta is, as always, teaching with amazing vigor, clarity and insight. She repeats many times that she is eager for us to understand the lessons because she is retiring, she also repeats that everything she is asking us to do she has done herself and that she continues to practice daily. She has told us not to just "manage" in the poses but seek out intelligent ways to practice - don't just say "I can't do".
I have found that she references the jnanendriyas a lot. She has spent much time setting us up during the prayers to look from different parts of the eyes - straight forward but from the lower eye lid, slightly above the line of the horizon etc. The effects are quite different. She then carried this into the invocation - having us look just above the line of the horizon from behind the closed eyes. Then in the asana she had our eyes follow the energy or direction of the pose; go with the front leg in Trikonasana, don't be looking back.
Also, in the pranayama practice we did some very profound (although I need to practice it a lot more to get the full effect I am sure) work with the ears. We plugged our ears with our index finger as we brought the head down to jalandhara bandha. The effect of which is a manual pratyahara.
We are working hard but she never lets us forget the meaning of practice or blast through the suttle teachings. Geeta is, from what I have been fortunate enough to observe, a truely inspired teacher.
I give thanks.
Tamar Kelly

Letter from Pune

2010-02-10T18:41:00.000-08:00

February 6, 2010 by bobbyclennell
The practice sessions at RIYMI are from 9 – 12 am. Most of the visiting students attend, and there are also some local students. Also in attendance are the teachers who assist in the classes. Guruji and Geetaji practice in these sessions, along with Abhyjata, Guruji’s granddaughter. One morning, Guruli was teaching Abhyjata how to jump from Uttanasana to Adhomukha Svanasana and back again. When Guruji works with someone (often, its Abhyjata), many of us gather around to watch and learn.
When jumping back into Adhomukha Svanasana from Uttanasana, compress the outer hips in. Jump forward from the inner thighs: Lift them and move them into the inner thigh bones. There should be a stronger sound as the feet land back into Adho Mukha, and hardly any sound as the feet land in Uttanasana.
After the mini “master class”, we all drift back to our places and resume our practice, some to practice what we have just learned. Guruji continues with his practice, very often comprising of deep supported back bends.
In the afternoons the strong go shopping. Yesterday, myself, Richard Jonas and Sue Salanic (teacher from An-Arbor) explored one of the jewelry districts. We found M/s Bharatkumar Jewelers (established for over 100 years the owner told us) specializing in traditional silver jewelry which is popular with Iyengar students.
The jewelers has gone into the Pune Guide, which I have been updating since I arrived here. It is now with Fran Carlen a professional proof reader and student at the Institute. After that it will go to two other students who have volunteered their services: Robert Cory, who is going to make a table of content — it’s 60 pages long now, and Daphna Ascoli, who will clean up the type and work on the graphics. Then it will replace the 2008 version, currently on the IYNAUS web site.

Namaste,

Bobby Clennell

Richard Jonas

2010-02-08T02:38:00.000-08:00

Each morning in the Asana Hall Guruji works with his granddaughter Abhi, imparting insights and wisdom to another generation – and to those of us who gather around to watch and listen. He has Abhi and a student stand side by side, then asks Ray, a medical doctor from New York, to observe as the two do Samasthiti, then Utkatasana Whose legs are long in the front, Guruji asks, whose long in the back? Is the skin on their thighs moving up or moving down? And can any of the doctor’s sophisticated instruments measure this? No, the doctor admits. Guruji smiles.

Next he tells us that one of the assistants, Raya, is also a musician. At Guruji’s direction, Raya does Trikonasana. Now feel the vibration in your front leg, Guruji tells him. Raya nods. Is it the same as the vibration in your back leg? No, Raya says. Guruji has Raya take his back leg further back, then re-establish the pose. Now how is the vibration? he asks. Raya nods. It is in tune. Guruji laughs. Raya makes music with an instrument, he says, but I use the body as the instrument, and I bring it into tune.

Guruji has Raya take Utthita Parsvakonasana, as more students gather. Is there vibration in this leg? Guruji asks, touching the back one. Yes, Raya says. But not in this leg, the front? he asks. No. That’s because the back leg is longer, Guruji says, having Raya move deeper into the bend, coming lower. Now is there a vibration in the front leg too? especially the outer thigh? Yes, Raya says, noticeably straining after his long time in the posture. That is how I make music with the body, Guruji says.

In Wednesday’s Ladies Class, which I observe, Geetaji talks, movingly and profoundly, about aging. When one is young, she says, one can do; when she was young, she easily did this or that asana or part of the asana – for example, taking the mid-buttock deeply in, in standing postures and backbends, as she is teaching today. Then it came without thinking, she says. It is not that she has just discovered these points that she is teaching now; it is that, with an older body, one has to work differently, with more awareness and intelligence. This is how she does her asanas now, she says, and this is the answer to the questions we ask her: How can I do? What should I do when This bothers me, or That pains me?

In another class we spend a long time preparing the arms for Virabhadrasana I and III. Afterwards we stand again, arms in Urdhva Namaskarasana. Take the arms back, Geeta says, back behind the ears! Elbows straight! Shoulders and trapezius back! Armpit chest open! Back ribs in! Make the arms a window for the head!

Now, where is the opening? Where does the breath go? she asks, as mine floods the sides of my chest. I have given you these external points so you can find the openness inside, she tells us.

Prashant talks about learning to be a student. We can – many people do – do yoga to perform, to show off, to be fit, to have a “lens perfect” pose, he says. Or we can develop a learner’s culture, studying the body, the mind, the breath, the effect they have on one another. In these subtle, inward dynamics we will find yoga, he says, and only there.

A sizeable New York contingent is here, Bobby Clennell, Michelle LaRue, Tamar Kelly and myself from the Iyengar Institute staff, plus Nikki Costello, Sheila Bunnell, Cheryl Malter, Barbara Boris and Martin Brading. Senior Teacher Mary Reilly taught a workshop at the Institute just before coming to Pune; Senior Teachers Judy Brick Freedman, Chris Saudek, who taught at last year’s Mary Dunn Weekend, and Anna Delury, who joined us for Mary’s memorial service, are here too.

You see them and others in the practice hall, at lunch and dinner, walking around, but not, this year, at the internet café near the Ambience Hotel. That is closed. More people have wifi in their apartments now; others find somewhere else from which to write home and hear news of blizzards and record cold in New York. Pune is clear-sunny and warm, not too hot yet. The pollution seems no worse but traffic is a chaos of bicycles, rickshaws, motorcycles, more and more cars, especially on the FC and JM roads, newly made one-way. It will be months, the Times of India says, before the city installs pedestrian crossings. Big banners at Pune Central, the giant shopping complex almost across the street from the Institute, offer “51 Percent Off Happiness.”

My friend Eric, who lives in Pune, picks me up on his new motorcycle, and we ride to the 8th-century rock-cut temple of Pataleshwar Caves, to a park, to the river, to street stands for ice cream, spooning out tastes for the little boys who stand pulling at our sleeves, motioning piteously to their mouths, holding up their little bowls.

From the first, practice at R.I.M.Y.I. seems involving, grounded, soaring. After the sustained hard work of the standing poses in Geeta’s class, it is wonderfully quiet and restful to be in Sirsasana, one tall tree among a forest, undisturbed by the slight stir of the ceiling fan.

The sky is black when I leave in the morning, still dark when I arrive early for the 7:00 class. A dozen people are lying down or working at the ropes. The Asana Hall is not yet lit, but at the window, from across the small courtyard, comes a light from Guruji’s room, where he sits at his desk. Another day in Pune begins.

2010-02-06T08:12:00.000-08:00

Just sharing this little interchange between myself and Stephanie Quirk on face book earlier today. Hope it makes sense to those who read it:

Bobby Clennell: Woke up this morning to discover I had calf muscles. Awesome class with Geetaji last night -- lots of Virabhadrasana I and III.

Stephanie Quirk . . . Probably was the sankatasana at the beginning of the class, and the virabhadrasana 4's.

Bobby Clennell. Virabhadrasana 4 was with the arms straight back and arms to side, right?

Stephanie Quirk. nope virabhadrasana 4 (1st version) was like parigasana but extended arms parallel to to the extended leg, (2nd version) had 1x leg like parigasana and the other like mulabandasana.
Virabhadrasana 3 with arms out to sides was given reference to vimanasana.

Bobby Clennell. Thanks Stephanie! Walking through the park to class this morning with Rita. She told me which pose was called Sankatasana: Kneeling with toes turned under, palms on floor under shoulders. Then lift knees, so shins parellel to floor. Yup! That's the one I can still feel in my upper calves.

Namaste,

Bobby Clennell

Geetaji's class

2010-02-06T03:06:00.000-08:00

The asana room was electric last night. We were all held on the edge of the moment with Geetaji’s powerful teaching. Among other things, we did lots of Virabhadrasana I and III. Long holdings in Vira I. We did Vira III with three arm positions: 1) Straight ahead in the classical manner (triceps drawn onto the upper arm bones). 2) Vira IV: Straight back and out to the sides, like an airoplane.

The variation in arm positions give those who cannot easily (such as breast cancer surivors with scar tissue that they are working on) or should not (hypertension) take their arms above the head. And for the rest of us, it’s good to work in a different way sometimes.

Namaste,

Bobby Clennell

2010-01-28T06:35:00.001-08:00

I do not really know the audience of this blog but I guess that most of you practice Adho Mukha Svanasana at least a couple of times a week....meaning to say that it does not matter to hear similarities in stories about the life in Pune from me. Each experience is unique and beholds the promise of renewed inspiration.
I am here almost 4 weeks now, long enough to have passed the abdominal and nasal stress test. Passed yes, meaning that my immune system is up for the battle. However the little guys (germs) are lurking everywhere and constant vigilance is in place. I am convinced that my "icanbreathe" mask and the GSE extract are of major importance to the survival in Pune. It is my 3rd time here and the pollution is oppressive to say the least. More cars than ever fill the streets and even the relative peace at Guruji's school is disturbed since FC road has been turned into a one way road. Last night's restorative class was a sound sculpture of sneezes, scrapings and nose blows. So be prepared you blog readers!
Studying In Pune with the family is a huge treat, privilege and indeed also a deep experience of belonging. All the practice, all the teachings from back home, from past years and years to follow, have their root here. So no matter what our cultural background is,here we meet at the mula, the root and we form a community, a group of people sharing the common language of yoga under the auspices of the Iyengar family. We are already yoked simply by walking through the gate of the school.....I know that you, stranger from the other side of the world, practice and love the same art as I do. Therefore: "Namaskar!"
Entering the school (it feels more like a school than an institute to me) almost each day is a special experience: material life stands still here and there is something of a 'higher' atmosphere as if the air molecules inside here are ever containing the essence of years of hard work, sweat, spiritual break- through moments and yogic vibrations.
Rooms are bare, minimally outfitted and the bathrooms are from the first day of earth's existence. The architecture of the building is interesting, slightly disorienting with hidden rooms and wings. Shri Hanuman presides over the top. Everything you touch has a function, there is nothing superfluous. Upstairs is the great yoga room and this room gets filled to the max with students or as we know in good Iyengar style: sometimes there are more props than students, sometimes more students than props. However: this is our school. Guruji practices with us most mornings and Geetaji comes in late morning. This again illustrates the sense of community that I find deeply moving: we are all in the same room, we are all one in yoga.
During practice times Guruji is practicing with us; sometimes he retreats into his own poses, sometimes he teaches to whomever is in front of him and many times he is simply teaching while leaning against the horse. Always sharp, seeing everything. He also instructs senior teachers to perform in front of him or for them to correct another student, while he observes. He does not hesitate to ask the confrontational question: 'so if you don't know the pose yourself, how can you teach it?'. He is investigating how your mind works. How often do we think that we know certain asanas? How often do we assume that a senior teacher knows more than a junior teacher? To Guruji we are all the same. He kicks all pillars away that one has built their own yoga institution on and consequently your ideas and beliefs are under direct scrutiny and exposure.
In order to practice yoga we have to come level with humility and innocence as they bring about respect for the subject as well as purity and curiosity.
Knowing all the points that create a perfect asana or having the technical ability to perform a perfect asana........this knowing still consists of the three gunas and is therefore fluctuating knowledge. Guruji wants us to be humble and innocent in order to closely observe how the intelligence penetrates the body.
He asks us: what is heavy? what is light? where is thickness? where is thinness? where is the skin white or red? how does the skin move? did any change happen? did you observe it? why did you not do it? how is it moving? which is the direction? when you press the big toe...what is the change all over, do you see it?
This very questioning brings the alertness and curiosity into the practice. It means also that we have to try things to see if they work, that we have to repeat and refine in order to have that intelligence moving everywhere.
Similarly, Geeta has asked us this month to use the right tools to enable the deepening of the asana. We have been working with the tools of movement and repetition during many classes this month. Pumping, Pushing, Rolling, Swinging and Throwing (as in throwing the trunk sideways in Parivtitta Janu Sirsasana). These tools take us out of the classic way of entering and exiting a poses and give new information. Only if we ask ourselves afterwards: did something happen, is there a difference, does the pose come better? Otherwise it is mindless doing, or as Prashantji would say: 'Okay if you can't help it , go ahead and do your exercises!'
He said it very well too: frequency and repetition within asana is very important for the advanced practitioner.....otherwise there can be no exploration.

So here I am. Navigating and tending to the mind behind the practice. Puna itself serving as a huge metaphor for cittavritti. All the dust, the sweeping, the honking, the crowds, the fumes.......and then suddenly, a smile of a girl in a bright pink dress, the sight of beautiful red apples perfectly arranged on an old cart, orange flowers falling from a tree, the scent of agarbattis and the sound of a prayer bell........ Gems are here to be caught.

Thank you dear Iyengar family for your tremendous hospitality.
Lucienne

a moment from Pune

2010-01-24T02:03:00.000-08:00

dear Everyone Namaskar!

It has been a delightfully dense learning in the embrace of the Iyengars; so much is packed in each ray of guidance they shine upon us, Geetaji and Prashantji in formal class, Guruji Iyengar in wonderful moments that you chance upon in your goings and comings in the Institute. One such moment was a late afternoon that I came to the Institue, and happened upon a gathering of Russian visitors, students of Iyengar yoga who were interviewing Mr. Iyengar. I promptly sat down amongst them and listened. I share with you some of these gems that I was able to note down...:

"art is infinite; it is like an ocean. Our minds are limited. .. As you go on doing, new gates open, reach that level as far as possible.

On the future and the past:
"I never look at the past nor the future. Only the present. The moment is stable, so I am stable. I will not get caught in the cycle of movement. Do you call the river, past, present, future? The river flows to the sea. . death is the culmination of the river going to the sea..

"If you get in frame of mind 'I want this', what is coming, you don't see. You make a frame and you don't know the content. Don't have a frame! That is called as without mind... the mind's dual role: the soul and the senses of perception - it [the mind] doesn't take you here and there, you don't sink nor swim. Yoga makes the dual mind into a single mind through asanas."

On the role of the teacher:
"A teacher should be a student, learn from students the mistakes; be a learner; practice at home why mistakes are made; correct them experientially; how students go wrong, correct, play with your body - take the shape and then correct it - learn how to shift the intelligence there - then guide. Be a learner like the raw student who does innocently - mind is innocent, you do calculatedly!"

On practice:
"Anatomy of the asana and anatomy of the human body - learn to synchronise the two. Don't disturb the anatomy of the body".

"Steps to clean the mind: experiential state that cannot be explained; experience = look!

"Make the intelligence to feel each and every part.

"Trace the avenues in the body so that the intelligence can move through; trace the intelligence in par with the body - evenly : 'sthira shukham asanam'".

You will find it delightful to know that Mr. Iyengar corrected the alignment of one of his students right there and then, the gentleman was in full street clothes, long pants and button down shirt: but Mr. Iyengar corrected the direction of the lift of the skin of his thighs and calfs to correct his Tadasana! Later he corrected the shape of his knees in Virasana, without ever looking at him straight on = the student was sitting on the floor in virasana right next to him (Guruji's left); not once did he look at the student, but saw all misalignments and by correcting the positioning of the buttuck bones, the direction of the calf muscle, he corrected this man's virasana! A delight was this to witness!

I wish everyone an opportunity to visit Pune too.

with blessings and love
naghmeh

2009-02-22T11:29:00.000-08:00

Parsvakonasana fried Trikonasana - remembering Mary Dunn in Pune

2009-02-22T11:07:00.000-08:00

A week after the NY Institute spent the weekend celebrating the life of Mary Dunn, I reflect in Pune upon how lucky her students were. Taking wonderfully inspiring and challenging classes at R.I.M.Y.I. has reinforced these feelings of good fortune. Mary accurately transmitted the teachings coming from Pune. She helped us tap into what Prashant refers to as the body's innate "will to do", goaded us on to develop our "will to learn", and always allowed our "will to be" to surface and come to the fore. When useful, she translated the teachings for us so that they could resonate with our experience and cultural background. And of course there were the food metaphors... Prashant recently challenged us to not be overwhelmed by the combinations he offered us to work with. He supposed that we wouldn't be overwhelmed but instead very pleased by a lengthy restaurant menu, even one, perhaps, the size of a phone book... Two weeks ago we were asked to take trikonasana after first "frying" it in parsvakonasana. This parsvakonasana-fried trikonasana was meant to be altered indelibly in its preparation - not simply trikonasana with some Parsvakonasana on the side! My yoga practice and that of so many others around the world, has been, if I may so, unalterably fried in Mary Dunn and how wonderful is that!

Dmitri

Thank you Prashant. – From Light to Dark, and Back.

2009-01-23T22:30:00.000-08:00

Think about having a teacher that can, whether you know it or not, make you question the very fabric of your being. To have you questioning the depths within yourself that you never knew were there… That is what it is like to study with Prashant Iyengar.

Prashant is continuously preaching, “you are only doing it physiocratically.” “You are in a doing culture!” “When are you going to learn?”

You see… I believe am a person, a teacher who lives, draws from, and basks in the light that is Yoga. Hardly ever exploring the vast caverns of your mind where only a glimmer of light helps you to see the hand in front of your face. But, what I learned today is that there is a very dark side to this Yoga, and that this darkness has just as much to teach us, and just as much for us to draw from. The darkness is the unknown of what we think we know about ourselves. The darkness of questioning what we know, and what we believe to be True.

And it takes a man like Prashant Iyengar to push you down that tunnel of the unknown.

In Prashant’s class this morning, he lectured that Yoga has become “big business,” and that all Yoga teachers today are trying to be “impressive” teachers who impress their students so that they continue to come to class, and that none of them are teaching the true meaning of Yoga… This insulted me as a teacher because he is right. It bruised my ego so badly that I left class insulted and angry – and remained that way all day. It was something I just couldn’t let go. Then I realized what he was teaching, and I found it was something I shouldn’t let go…

I started thinking about the questions he was asking: “When are you going to get out of this gym psychosis?” “When are you going to understand what you are supposed to learn here?” “All you think about is what you are supposed to do,” he says. “You never think about why you do, or how you do!”

And then, out of nowhere, I found myself asking myself these questions, and what emerged was something I already knew, but didn’t…

I realized that I AM a person that truly loves this practice and would not give up spreading that love for anything in the world. But, you see, I never questioned what it meant to me to be on this path… I never thought about what it meant to me to be traveling this path. I was just happy to be where I was. I was proud to be on this Yogic path, and felt righteous to be a Yoga teacher.

I now see that I as a practitioner it is my responsibility to do the searching. It is my quest to figure it out for myself, so that I can teach from my place and my experience.

This new mindfulness has taught me to be a more observant practitioner, and to listen to instructions as a student and absorb them in such a way that I have an experience that becomes my truth. I realized that none of it matters… Lifting your kneecaps, opening your chest, stretching your legs, they all can all be physical traps. What matters is what we do with them. How we pay attention to them. How we pay attention to the way the mind, and the breath connect with the body and mingle to move us through our endeavors, so that we start practicing Yoga.

Prashant helped me to see this truth. To see what it truly meant to be a student of Yoga, and to understand that this teaching of Yoga is a tremendously special endeavor. But, most of all he gave me the courage, the means, and the opportunity to search the depths of myself for the answers.

Like a strong Ardha Chandrasana, there is a side that is open, and brightly shining, but there is also the backside – the dark side of the moon. The side that is beneath the surface where there are questions to ask and work to be done – shoulder blades engaged, buttocks firm, arms and legs communicating for support, and that work feeds continuously to the light of our open chests and our open hearts brightly shining out into the world.

Prashant has a way of beating you down and asking you questions that you think you can just tune out. But if you are open they get in, and they make you question the very fabric of who you are, as a practitioner, as a teacher, and as a person. He has searched the depths of his own mind and has developed a way to teach self-inspiration.

So, through the search of my insulted and angry ego came clarity about what he was trying to accomplish as a teacher. And in his genius way, he sent me down this tunnel of the unknown only to emerge out of the other side stronger and standing in awe of his bright shining light.

- Adam

When is Your Vehicle Going to Run?

2008-11-18T18:57:00.000-08:00

Nothing wakes you up out of your habits and patterns of body mind and breath like class with Prashant Iyengar. Last night's class was no exception. He said (I'm paraphrasing) "The Iyengar students are always fixing, adjusting, repairing...it is like I have sold you a car which is always in the shop. You are always taking it to the garage for repair! You are always doing, doing, doing and it is never done. When is your vehicle going to run?"He went on to describe drinking a cup of tea when you are on an Indian train -- the skill it takes to sip your tea without spilling it! He said it was like we were always pulling the emergency brake in order to stop and sip our tea. Being like the conductor, he said we should not be surprised if we sensed a bit of irritation or admonishment in his tone because we keep interrupting his flow by pulling the chain! He led us through Sirsasana cycle (as opposed to variations) a term he used specifically for it's implication of continuity. He asked us not to "jerk and jolt" while we went through the cycle, not to create tremors in the body, mind or breath. We kept that up through the standing poses, Sarvangasana and then some forward extensions. I kept my vehicle running all the way home to dinner.

Tori

My Day Off

2008-11-16T18:48:00.000-08:00

When you get a time estimate in India, you should at least double it! We took a sunrise hike to the top of a hill overlooking Pune and were expecting the trip to take and hour and a half. We (Nancy Roberts, Kathy Horak, Dale from UK, and Manu Shahani) agreed to meet around 6am for our adventure. Four hours later we were getting home! That was after some good calf-tightening inclines, climbing to the top of a rickety observation tower, encountering packs of wild dogs and people, conversing with an environmental group who had us take a tour of the 2,000 trees they planted (which they water by hand!!!), taking photographs of the group, called the Green Hills Group and finally being invited to tak part in their traditional "laughing" circle to wrap up the experience! Once our hilltop excursion was finished and we were down on the road, Manu's car brakes failed and we had to leave it and take rickshaws to Vaishali - a very popular restaurant. We scraped together enough rupees for dosas and coffee, which we devoured after a long wait. Finally home after the big dusty trip, I decided to do a load of laundry, which somehow flooded the entire bedroom of my roommate/landlord. Having a taste of water covering my feet as I cleaned up the mess, my yoga roommates and I decided to go lounge by a pool out past Koregan Park. It was lovely and freezing! We stayed for several hours....! After coming home and re-organizing my room, my friend Athena Pappas dropped by and invited me out to ice cream. We enjoyed reading the menu with all of it's endearing misspellings - "pinappie suprim" (pineapple supreme). After we licked our choco-almond cones, we strolled home amidst endless traffic, honking, unexpected large toads on the sidewalk and the magic that India always delivers under the light of a waning moon. More adventures to come!

Love,
Tori

Setu Bandha Obama!

2008-11-05T01:51:00.000-08:00

The Americans were very excited this morning. We began the ladies class knowing Obama was in the lead but his victory was still unconfirmed. As many of you know, though it is a "ladies" class, male teachers often observe from the steps, and in some cases assist, to expand their knowledge. Halfway through class, our friend Aaron showed up on the steps and started mouthing something to us... Geeta was yelling at us to get into Bridge Pose and we thought he was trying to be helpful by saying "Setu Bandha!" Well, we eventually figured out what he was saying ("Obama!") and suffice it to say, there was much glee around the coconut cart after class. We are all looking forward to a celebatory potluck tonight.

As wonderful as it is to be here celebrating with my compadres and our Israeli, German, Japanese, Brazilian, British, Kiwi, Ausie, South Afrikan, Italian, and last but not least, Dutch friends, in my heart of hearts I am really missing you, struck by an unexpected desire to stand on American soil, exchange hugs, and share this great moment with you.

Cheers and hugs and love,

Eve

Patanjali Jayanti Day - October 26, 2008 - by Tori

2008-11-05T00:29:00.000-08:00

It is a new month here in Pune with quite a few of us continuing and a lot of new faces too, including three from IYAGNY – Leslie Mannes, Susan Turis and Cynthia Worby. I ran into them in the lobby of The Ambiance Hotel down the road and as Susan’s eyes focused on me she said “Tori! A familiar face!!” Since then, we have, of course run into each other on the sidewalk several times.

Last week, I took a few days to travel by overnight train with six others to Goa’s coast and had a lovely time while the Institute was closed for Diwali. The morning of the 26th was Patanjali Jayanti Day and those of us going on the trip made sure we stayed for that celebration before we went to the beach! I’m so glad we did.

The three hour program began with Geetaji reciting Patanjali’s 108 names, which she did quite quickly. We tried to follow as best we could without a handout, and she very patiently broke the words down into manageable pieces as we went. It was very energizing and great preparation for reciting the Yoga Sutras as well. Since reciting all of the Sutras was going to take too long for the program, Geeta explained, Guruji recommended that we first do Sadhana Pada (Chapter 2), the first 13 sutras of Vibhuiti Pada (Chapter 3) followed by Samadhi Pada (Chapter 1). After the recitation, there was a yoga demonstration put on by the Indian teachers performing asanas of various types with detailed explanations of sequencing, organic effects and more. After the asana demonstrations, two teachers did a pranayama demonstration/lecture. Geeta praised the teachers for doing such a fine job with their last-minute organization.

Then, Geeta asked Guruji to speak. The room turned away from the marble platform toward Guruji, who was seated against a pillar in the middle of the room, on the floor with the rest of us. He gave a short talk connoting how the kosas, which he condensed into the three bodies – the gross body, the subtle body and the causal body relate to Kriya Yoga, the first sutra of Sadhana Pada. 11.1 tapah svadhyaya Isvarapranidhanani kriyayogah. He explained how the gross body (anotomical) needs tapas, the subtle body ( physiological, intellectual, mental) needs svadyaya and the causal body (blissful, spiritual) needs Isvara Pranidhana. After Guruji’s incredibly intelligent words on such a vast subject, we were invited down to the courtyard for prasad, Indian sweets, including a special ladu made for Diwali, as that day was Diwali’s official beginning. Geeta and Guruji welcomed us all into this extension of their humble home as many swarmed like paparazzi for a photo opportunity. The mood was light and warm, and each was good-natured as the shutterbugs clicked away.

As I walked out of the driveway, I paid homage to Patanjali, lavishly dressed in a garland of flowers. Then I took all my kosas to the train and spent the next several days enjoying a rest by the Arabian Sea, including the common sighting of cows on the beach, dolphin spotting from my sea kayak and a great motorbike ride with my friend Larry Lopez from San Francisco. With no pollution and ample time, I reflected on the profundity of my first month in Pune. Here’s to another one!

Goats, rivers and bicycles - by Tori

2008-10-22T01:04:00.000-07:00

As I was coming back from a shopping trip to the vegetable market early this morning, I noticed a goat with a tether hanging from his neck grazing at the car dealership at the chowk (traffic circle). Though this is not an unusual sight, for me it is still such a novelty, so I took his picture. A voice behind me said "It'll turn out much better when you're in the picture too!" I turned around to see our very own Lindsey Clennell and we exchanged smiles and hugs as we made our way back toward the Institute. It was so wonderful to see him there on the road.

Then, I went to Geeta's Wednesday morning Women's Class where we are practicing pranayama this week. As we sat in Swastikasana, she spoke of keeping the edges of the body aligned like the two banks of a river so the pranic energy can flow correctly and evenly. She talked about the tilts of the body and how they "bang" in different places - at the shoulders, ribs, pelvis, etc. Our job was to study where we were "banging" - like the ocean crashing onto the shore - how it bangs. She said to exist in the middle of the sea, and then one can even venture under the sea...

Last night in his Tuesday night class, Prashant compared learning pranayama to learning how to ride a bicycle. He took me right back to a memory of my father pushing me (no training wheels!!) from behind on our driveway over thirty years ago. He talked about how you sweat and perspire and need momentum in the beginning otherwise you "wobble" and you could easily tip over without that velocity. It is only when you have gotten first the momentum that the understanding and refinement can come and then you can practice "super slow-motion."All this he applied to the breath and the practice of pranayama, which he reminded us is not to build our lung capacity or manage stress (which of course it will, but that is a by-product), but to increase our wisdom per Patanjali's yoga sutras.

So many jewels to share with you...much more to come. Off to practice and then dinner with Lindsey.

Tori Milner @ RIMYI - October 21,2008

2008-10-20T20:23:00.000-07:00

I am in India for my third two-month stay in Pune studying with the Iyengar family. Apologies for taking so long to get something started. I think it’s taken me this three weeks to get my rhythm, which I why I always try to stay for a long time.

I am living on the second floor of a ten-story building right next door to RIMYI (Ramamani Memorial Iyengar Yoga Institute) and the Iyengar home. In fact, last night as we were getting in from dinner we saw Prashant Iyengar watching television next door. It is the natural course of events here to see and hear the Iyengars every day, not just when they are teaching – a concept that seemed so novel my first trip here and now seems so natural.

Change has come to Pune since I first visited in 2004. I’ve noticed many new things – new buildings, malls, stores, wireless internet, higher rents, higher tuition, more women and men wearing Western clothes such as jeans and t-shirts….evidence of recently stricken strong economic times. But so much is the same too….random power-outages, animals moving along with the flow of traffic on the road, off the chart horn-blowing, over-the-top festival celebrations – which now seem to include an endless array of fireworks. Life is good in Pune.

My roommates are Frances and Greg, from New Zealand and Canada respectively. And our landlord, Sanjeev, lives here in the apartment too. He is a local, who is very helpful to consult on a regular basis. We each have our own room and bathroom. There is a washing machine here in the apartment, but I still sometimes wash by hand in my plastic bucket.

I’ve been attending class every day with Geeta, except Tuesdays, which I have with Prashant. I have also been observing and lending a hand in “Medical” class, which is always an adventure.

This week is pranayama and we had our first class with Geetaji last night who asked us to gather all parts of our body under the same umbrella. Our spine was the stem of the umbrella and we were to study the tilts and where the energy is flowing and where it is not and collect everything together, she said, like a kindergarten teacher has to get all the children to do the same thing. It was lovely.

I went home and ate the sweetest pineapple for dinner.