The Yoga Prince of Pune turns 70

On 2^nd of July 2019, Sri Prashant Iyengar turned 70. RIMYI has organised a 4 days’ workshop on yoga under the tutelage of Prashant Iyengar himself, where he showered deep insights on Yog. He never liked the idea of teaching yog through workshops, as he believes; yog can’t be learned in workshops. In spite of his dislike, he was dragged into it as a part of Guruji’s centenary celebrations last year. He did few of those workshops last year and continues to do so occasionally there on, upon the insistence of his students. Whether he likes it or not I feel workshops provide ideal platform for his teachings as classes have the limitation of time. As I heard him saying in a class “my dear friends understand my problem in a classroom scenario. People come with different mind and body sets. Some come up with pathological conditions; I have to give them relief. Some come here to work out; I need to work them out. Some come up tired and fatigued, I have to relax them and so on and at the same time I need to teach yog. Just imagine how difficult it is for me in the given time frame of two hours.”

The Yoga Sessions:

This was my second encounter with Prashant sir’s workshop after Bellur in September 2018 apart from his classes at RIMYI in Pune. This workshop was uniquely distinct from the one I attended before. The classes were more like sessions, where he tried to explain how one has to move beyond physical aspects of asanas using breath and the body. All the while, he has been talking about how students learned from Guruji remained at physical level where Guruji has gone way ahead from what he practiced & taught in his early years.

Highlights of the Sessions:

I am quoting some of the highlights of the session that I remember.

• Prashant sir was at his best and therefore he was the prime highlight of the sessions.

• He began the sessions throwing some light on modern yog which he calls “yogaaaa”. (Y. O. G. DOUBLE ‘A’ DOUBLE ‘A’)

• People say, yoga is for health but it is not meant for health. Health is by yoga.

• They also say ‘yoga’ is for all. In fact, yoga is not for all. The appropriate statement would be ‘Yoga has something for all’. 
• Yoga is not just doing but it’s also listening. 

And believe me we listened and listened a lot. Prashant ji is such a power house of knowledge that he talks from yog to science, physics, geography, food, medicines, plants, trees, nature and what not. He is amazing. We had all of these during the sessions.

On yogic front, he revealed one of his secret on how he developed the art of knowing what Guruji used to do inside when he was practicing. Though he learned alongside other students with Guruji, he developed a better understanding of his actions beyond physical. He understood what he was doing within rather than the physical outlook. For this he used the faculty of imagination. He emphasised the students to develop the art of imagination to see what’s beyond physical actions of the body. He demonstrated on Abhijata, Siddhart and Raya in Purvottanasana and asked the students to imagine what must be happening at the palms to elbows, elbows to armpit, armpit to chest, toes to shins, shins to the knees, knees to thighs, thighs to pelvic floor, mid pelvis, abdomen to chest, tail bone to sacrum, sacrum to lumbar and imagine what would be the breath in these confinements and how it is aiding to lift the body up. The chest can’t go up unless there is assistance from the toes of the feet and palms and the breath at different levels.

Take away from the Sessions:

What have I gained from these sessions? Well... I understood how to use different body parts and breathe while doing asanas. Sorry...sorry... while participating in asanas.  He explained in his usual self in Marathi “KAR MAR KAR – DO DIE DO. You people just do...do...do... and die!  “You do yoga! I do yoga! We do yoga! All do Yoga! This is all what you do. Yoga is all about happening. It doesn’t happen when you do and therefore participate! Participating will let it happen. You participate in somebody’s wedding ceremony, birthday parties but you never participate in self activity like yoga”.

I don’t know yet how far I can take this understanding. I leave it for the time to reveal.

On the concluding day, Prashantji revealed how asanas and pranayama work to purify the “Annamaya Kosa and Pranamaya Kosa” thereby cleansing one’s karmas, whereas Manomaya Kosa is touched only by the actions outside the mat. This was some kind of revelation for me and may be for many others.

70^th Birthday Celebrations:

The concluding day was a grand event to celebrate his birthday. He was grandly felicitated by his students. The idea of this title " The Yoga prince of Pune" came to my mind after a student felicitated him with a traditional Maratha pagdi (turban). He looked very Royal in it. 

His family members tried to introduce us the Prashant behind the doors. Some interesting programs were conducted during the event. The highlights were Abhijata’s interview with Prashantji, Iyengar sisters sharing the stage and a parody of his classes by some of his students.

Unmasking Prashant ji:

Like many others, I had some curious inquiries about Prashant sir which were answered during this session. The year 2011 was the first time I saw him in person but in the year 2012 an incident developed my curiosity on him. I was standing outside the yoga hall below the statue of Guruji in vrishchikasana. My eyes popped in through a window of Prashantji’s office. To my surprise, I found him practicing with a Bollywood song played on television. Since then every time I visited for my classes at RIMYI, I found him aloof from the hullabaloo of activities in the institute. Without knowing or meeting him in person, I developed some kind of respect for him. My heart always felt that he is something special. He was silently growing under the two giants ‘Guruji and Geetaji’.

It was clearly seen, unlike Guruji he is timid and shy from people. He prefers to stay most of the time in his office and practices behind the closed doors. Because of this very nature many developed misconceptions and misunderstandings about him.

My first experience of his classes at RIMYI:

In 2015, I was given the classes of Prashantji along with intermediate level 2. Due to my medical condition I used to struggle doing sirsasana and its variations in intermediate classes. I used to perspire and sweat so much that my entire t-shirt would get wet even when it’s raining outside.

On first day of Prashant sir’s class, I jumped onto ropes the moment he said Sirsasana. Day two, it’s the same. Day three, I was right in front of him, so gathered some courage and went up in Sirsasana. It was an unbelievable experience that I hold till now. I held the asana effortlessly for 10 minutes and may be even more had he not asked to come down. There was no perspiration as it was totally a breath work, no sweat and fear disappeared in few seconds I went up. I still remember that he started with Udyanic exhalations, calling to exhale further and further and further, flush out the abdomen completely and then inhalations and exhalations from different confinements. He asked to make the abdomen an ATC – Air Traffic Control and breathe from abdomen. Similarly making sacrum an ATC, Chest, back of the chest, sometimes shoulder blades, head the ATC, back of the head, front of the head, face, eyes etc. That was an amazing and unforgettable experience. My Sirsasana improved very well thereafter. Then in one of the classes, we did sirsasana multiple times after every asana. Like, we started with Sirsasana, Trikonasana then Sirsasana, Ardha Chandrasana and Sirsasana, Supta Padangustasana and Sirsasana etc. Every time, the Sirsasana was different.

I remember during Geetaji’s Yoganusasanam 2014, I was putting lot of effort and getting tired while doing the inversions. So tired that my leg muscles would leave the bones and hang loose after a while and breath becomes heavy.

Surprisingly in 2015 Yoganusasanam with Geetaji, I could participate without any perspiration, breathlessness or fear. In fact, I understood her instructions with more clarity than before. Such a difference Prashantji had brought in my practice in mere one month of his classes. In fact, I understood though Prashantji and Geetaji’s teachings appear distinct but in reality, it’s the same.

My first meeting with Prashantji:

After the conclusion of Geetaji’s teacher training program in July 2018 I met Prashant ji for seeking his permission to make a documentary film on Bellur. I never imagined that he is so approachable. He not only gave permission but gave his valuable suggestions on how to approach and what I can include in the video. His suggestions worked really well for me.

Then I met him for his interview in Bellur in September 2018 during a break of his workshop. He made me feel so comfortable that not even a single moment I was nervous. He answered all my relevant, non relevant questions with lot of patience and benevolence. Though I was allotted 10 minutes for the interview, it went on for over half an hour.

Later I met him during his 70^th birthday to inform that the film is complete and we would like him to release the video and he agreed to release the same in coming August on the eve of Guruji’s punyatithi.

The highlights of 70^th birthday Celebrations:

Apart from the heavy knowledge Prashant ji was pouring on us, there were some lighter moments and moments of fun as a sigh of relief by his students and family members in between.

 Yog Katta:

   

       

Yoga Katta - a parody of Prashant sir’s classes by some of his students generated some humour and thought. It’s a play based on the students meeting at a tea point after the class and discuss about his teachings. The programme was wonderfully executed by the students.

Sister’s exposing Prashantji’s mischiefs:

It was a delightful sight to see all sisters Vanita, Sunita, Suchita and Savita sitting on dais sharing their fond memories with Prashantji. They told how shy Prashantji was with women during his school days. He used to bunk the class and sit in a maid’s house till the class is over because the teacher was a woman. The Principal put him in class 3^rd from class 1 on realising his problem with a female teacher.

They gone on to share his mischief with younger sisters, relatives and neighbours, his love for music, violin practice & performances, his inspiration from Yehudi Menuhin, his yoga practice behind the doors and his transformation as a yogi and his philosophies.

Abhijata’s interview with Prashantji:

Abhijata and Harith did their best to introduce the Prashant that many people don’t know. Abhijata on behalf of the students asked many questions related to Prashantji’s life that was not known to many. I would like to share a few that I remember and I will try to bring the abstract of their conversation not exactly but very close to what they have told and that I remember. So, please forgive if I go wrong anywhere.

Abhijata:

Prashantji, you were very close to your mother Smt. Ramamani. How did you feel when she left you at an early age?

Prashantji:

There were no tears in my eyes ever since I had grown up when someone dies in the family. Their time has come up and they have gone. There is no point in thinking they should have stayed for another 10 or 20 years and then die. One day everyone has to die, then why worry?

Abhijata:

I heard it from your sisters; is it true that you had an aversion for yoga?

Prashantji:

One incident was quite strong on my mind. When I was in school, Guruji used to give demonstrations and my schoolmates would tease me by saying that your father is a ‘street performer’. This I could not take it. At that young age, I felt bad and it stayed badly in my mind and then I felt that I should never get into it in my life. Lots of negative forces were working in me which was not the case with Geeta. So lots of negative forces working for me and that’s why I had aversion for yoga.

Then in my childhood, I started becoming plumpy as you can see me now. The infrastructure was there and my physical form was also an embarrassment for me. My first urdhva dhanurasana if I tell, you won’t believe. The distance between feet and hands is apparently the distance of Trikonasana legs. That was my case. So I could not identify any potential in me that I could pursue in this line. I was enormously stiff. Guruji was very wild with me; I could not even sit straight when I was playing violin. I was always like a punctured wheel when I sat. Guruji would never tolerate my sitting. I got so many spanks from him merely for my sitting not for my violin performance. My appreciation for my violin practice was surely eclipsed by my sitting posture.

Abhijata:

So with this background, you started practicing asanas in 1968 and the legend is; your practice went on behind the closed doors. You started practicing in 1968 and by 1975 you did all the asanas of light on yoga. No one knows even Guruji what you were doing behind the doors till one day Guruji’s student C.L. Sanghvi accidentally saw you practice. He then told Guruji during a practice why don’t you call Prashant to practice. He said, No... no.. He is not interested and he can’t do all this. Then Sanghvi said I saw him practicing viparita chakrasana. Guruji then called him and said, hey Prashant! Can you do viparita chakrasana? This is how he came to know about your practice.

Prashantji, what happened behind those closed doors in Subhash Nagar house?

Prashantji:

As I said, I did not had suitable body, flexibility etc. I, myself could not bear my physical form or physical abilities. So there is no question of making a display of such a condition of my body and such a condition of my posture. So it is out of shame, I kept my doors closed. I won’t say that I worked very very hard but some sort of inner motivation came up at that point of time. My samskars would have surfaced. And then off course, it was the grace; I got the pace. And now I conceive it was not just samskars but the grace. And I feel grace is the greatest force to take me this far.

Abhijata: 

Prashantji, at a very young age, when you were well established in yoga and we know how much you loved playing violin. You met with a terrible accident and how was it like for you when you are not able to hold the violin for rest of the life?

Prashantji:

It didn’t matter much because I lost a mere limb of my body. Similarly it doesn’t matter I lost my hand to lift the violin. I merely lost the violin but the music is still in me. I haven’t done adhomukha svanasana after the accident but adhomukha svanasana is still in me. Music played an instrumental role in my yoga practice.

(After Prashantji’s rare footage of his asana practice and his class in 1990)

Abhijata: 

After those footages of your practice and yoga class, Prashantji can you tell us what transformed you to this now?

Prashantji:  

It was just spontaneous. Nothing planned as such. May be because of music my yoga practice transformed. Breath is an important instrument in classical yog. None of them realised the importance of breath. People saw the external body of Guruji and admired his broad chest and deflated abdomen in an asana but none of them realised what he was doing from inside.

That is it. I would like to conclude with Prashant sir’s message:

‘Thanks for your patience and thanks for bearing me’. Thank you!

Rita Keller Workshop in Bellur - 2018

Before I begin to share my experiences about the workshop, I would like to give some input about the teacher, Rita Keller.

Rita Keller:

The western World of Yoga does not need any introduction to Rita Keller. She is an Advanced Senior certified Iyengar yoga teacher from Germany with over 48 years of Yoga practice and teaching experience. She started the practice of yoga at the age of 18 and Iyengar yoga at the age of 22 in London. A year later, she moved to Pune to learn directly from Guruji B.K.S. Iyengar.  Since then she never looked back.

She is highly revered as one of the stalwarts in establishing and spreading the knowledge imparted by Guruji in most of the European countries. She is a teacher, teacher trainer and a guide to many students who lookout to establish their practice in Iyengar yoga. More importantly she is a very humble, friendly and a modest human being. I learned many things from her in these short interactions with her in couple of years. I love the way she meet the new comers. She is a heart winner. She greets each and every participant personally. She is a master in eradicating the fear or nervousness of being a newbie. This helps in building confidence among the students.

Guruji had a vision for Bellur, his birth place. He wanted to help the people of Bellur by providing them the very basic amenities like education, employment, medicine and impart yoga to the younger generations for their wellbeing. He wanted to build a school, hospital and yoga center for them. Ever since, he shared this with Rita Keller, she is working relentlessly to fulfill the vision of Guruji. If I am not wrong, she is conducting Iyengar yoga workshops from the year 2009 with foreign students from Europe and America to raise funds and help the trust in fulfilling the dreams of Guruji on Bellur.

It was in the year 2012, I learnt about her workshop and finally participated last year in 2017.

Initial hurdles:

The group that went last year - I, Tulsi, Raghavendra, Virupaksha, Rajaram were so impressed with her teachings that we were eagerly waiting for her return to Bellur and making our savings for the workshop.

Last year she was here for 8 days but this year she took a long intensive of 19 days. This changed all our calculations. The expenditure for us now is two times more than the previous year.

After much negotiations with Mr. Kishore and Mr. B. Raghu, it was agreed on Rs. 2500/- per day for Indian students that include food, accommodation in a dormitory and tuition fee. That means Rs. 47,500 for 19 days. It cost me over 1 lakh (including travel and other expenses) with my wife  accompanying for 19 days which is extreme for Indian students, even for the higher income people. We would have studied a minimum of 6 months in Pune with all sorts of expenditure with that amount.

Since I was eagerly waiting for this workshop for a year, I decided to participate at least a week if not all. Fortunately few days before the registration I received some money from my father that was equivalent to the total expenditure of the workshop. So I registered for total 19 days. Few of my friends from Telangana and Maharashtra have stepped back on learning about the expenditure. Finally 6 from Hyderabad, Raghavendra, Mohit, Gaurav, Sridevi, Tulsi, I and Virupaksha from Ballari managed to go for the event.

Blessings of our Teacher:

The difficult part was to skip my teacher Zarna Mohan's intensive in Rishikesh that coincided with Rita Keller's workshop. The announcement came in after I spread the word about the Rita Keller's workshop to my fellow mates.

I was little nervous on how my teacher would respond to this; as half of the students of our class were willing to visit Bellur. A great relief came after discussing the issue with her. She had no issues at all. In fact she met Rita Keller in Pune and said that her students are coming to her workshop in Bellur. Moreover, she was worried and concerned about our expenditure for the workshop. This was like a blessing for us. We are fortunate to have a teacher like her. 

Workshop Experience:

This workshop was an eye opener for many of us. It taught us how much we still have to work to understand the depth of Iyengar yoga. Now I understood the words of Geetaji when she said, "one has to bring effortful effortlessness in the practice." Without understanding the effort it is not possible to understand the effortlessness. The very theme of the workshop was to create the 'softness' in all postures irrespective of how advance the posture is.

The last year during a conversation with Rita Keller I asked, how important are those advance postures Guruji performed in "Light on yoga"  like difficult arm balances, topsy- turvy and other difficult poses where body is contorted to a great level. She smiled and said, off course they are important. People think difficult before they attempt. If one is ready and practices with hard work and with some intelligence one can master them.

If I remember correctly, last year she tried to explain about Taitirya Upanishad and how Iyengar yoga is based on this Upanishad. The major focus in asanas were on the Earth Element and Annamaya Kosha. This year, she continued from where she left before; rewinding and reminding the previous lessons from time to time. The focus was on Space, Earth and Air Elements this year. We have never understood the importance of these elements coordinating with the feet and hand movements while doing the asanas. It is for the first time we understood this clear, how important are these hand and feet movements in every asana whether simple or difficult and how these actions quieten the mind and bring softness in the pose. I was able to do or at least attempt some of the postures that I felt could never be possible to me. I clearly understood, if done with proper understanding and in a right manner it is certainly not very scary. At least, I overcome the fear of doing those asanas.

The beauty of Rita Keller's teaching is that she prepares you so well, that you don't feel any hardship in the end. Sometimes, I ended up doing certain things wondering how did that happen! She always keeps you at comfort level but that doesn't mean she lets you relax. I wondered the way she used to rush to all corners of the hall observing and adjusting wherever it is required.

From the very first class with Rita Keller, I got the feel of Gita Iyengar's teachings I experienced in Yoganusasanam. One can say, she is the softer version of Gitaji but she is as intense as her. Softly intense may be. Very interesting part of her personality is that she is very energetic and animated. We still remember some of her mannerisms, "look at those beautiful toes; they are sleeping! Please...! Please...! Please....!Do it for me!, Ooooiiii! Oh Goodieee! and so on.

Takeaway's from the Worskhop:

Rita Keller was in Bellur this time for three weeks to teach Junior I, II and III. All sorts of participants were there in the group from senior to junior practitioners and everyone has got something out of her sessions.

For me I think, I understood how much I need to practice and how I have to practice to progress further. When you work under a World class teacher like Rita Keller with the volume of experience under her belt and the way she carries herself, there is certainly something to learn.

For me the most outstanding part was the clarity I got in Pranayama. The Pranayama sessions were so clear and precise, I never understood the methodology this clear before. I was not able to establish in my Pranayama practice so far and now I realized why my mind used to wander while practicing it. My humble thanks to Rita madam for her wonderful teaching.

Again it is the same with asanas. Though, I must say intellectually knew the actions that she taught with feet and hand movements but never understood this clear. It is not that she taught something that nobody has taught before. I think the way she presented the subject I guess is what made the difference. She I think has a unique knack of teaching which haven't seen in many. I am basically a slow learner. I understand things late and slow. Rita Keller has a unique way of teaching. I haven't seen any other teacher teaching yoga on board and paper. She used to write down on board or paper and sometimes even draw the images about the brief summary of what is she going to present, explain it and then she teaches. Again before she begins the session she used to take the feedback and questions from previous session and continue after clarifying them. This is of great help to a slow learner like me.

She taught some very interesting sequences on the jet lag, mental fatigue, depression and High blood pressure etc. She shared lot of information and her experiences on women issues during menstruation and pregnancy. The pregnancy session on Virupaksha as a pregnant woman was very funny and enlightening. She named different asanas and asked Virupaksha to do them with 8 months pregnancy. By this she tried to practically explain what asanas can be done and what not in a very humorous way.

Being a senior teacher trainer, Rita Keller gave lot of input on how to teach students at different levels and also to help people suffering from ailments. She taught us very fine details of teaching starting from the proper use of props to teaching without touching the students unless it is really essential. As some of us from Hyderabad have began to teach the beginners and also assisting our teacher in Therapy classes, those lessons were really helpful.

Festivities and other Activities in Bellur:

This year, we were in Bellur during the festive season of Sankranti which is basically a festival of farmers celebrating the harvesting season. There were many cultural activities in the village as well as the school in the premises. Entire Bellur campus came to life on the Sankranti night as we all sang and danced. The memorable moments of the night were all ladies cheering the united dhoti team of men and all dancing together in the yoga hall after fire ceremony. Students of the school gave some cultural performances during the Republic day of India and yoga demonstrations as well. Apart from this we had great time exploring the beautiful countryside views during our trip to Melukote and exciting experience with monkeys at Lalbagh in Bengaluru. 

      

The group regularly used to visit Patanjali Temple in the Village to offer puja and chant 108 names of Patanjali. In between we visited the adjacent Rama Temple, Om Shakti Temple and Cheluva Narayana Temple in Melukote. Rita Keller is very much interested in knowing the "Sthala Puranam" the legend of the temple, its architectures, mantras etc.

     

We happened to visit Mr. Padmanabhachari, the sculpture who make the idols for Guruji. He was the one who was shown in Sadhaka the trailer, a 20 minute documentary on Guruji. It was a great feeling to meet that man. He has some kind of warmth in his personality.

  

Another important characteristic of Rita Keller is that she tries to mingle with local people. She doesn't want to be seen as an outsider. She participates in the cultural activities of the students, interacts with them, distributes stationery to all the students every year, encourages them to study and practice yoga. She never misses a chance to teach yoga to those children when she visits Bellur. I again remember Geetaji when she takes children classes. Both of them have something in common. Looking at her, sometimes I feel she is making way for her next birth in India.

   

Venue:

The way Bellur campus area is now molded is very fascinating. Rita Keller through a Power Point Presentation showed how the dry land and a huge monolithic rock is converted into a beautiful place now. They say, around 30,000 trips of trucks were made to bring the soil in the premises and you can imagine how much of work is done there to make what it is today. Every effort is being made to keep it clean and green. The administrators have driven an initiative to plant trees in the premises with every yoga group that comes here. We planted around 40 trees this time.

    

The ambiance of the venue is absolutely beautiful and calm and away from noise and any other kind of pollution. There is a beautiful view of the green fields and rock hills around. It is equipped with good quality accommodation rooms that can accommodate up to 40 people and a beautifully built cafeteria that can accommodate over 200 people and a beautiful yoga hall that can accommodate around 250 people.

            

All this is fine but one thing I am not able to understand what was Guruji's vision on the yoga hall. I can certainly say, that Guruji would not have wanted such a massive yoga hall to be used only for occasional intensives or Yoga Retreats. His vision must have been something broad. There is no point in teaching 40-50 students in a yoga hall that has the capacity of 250 people and that too for few days/months leaving the hall vacant throughout the year. More importantly, only foreign teachers conducting the workshops in Bellur gives a wrong indication to the people. Rita Keller is strongly emphasizing on building a Yoga University in the premises to impart quality yoga teaching to the people all over the World. May be, Guruji might have had this vision who knows! But the immediate need of the hour is that of regular yoga classes running throughout the year for locals and the staff of BKSSNT.

Another important factor is that I felt the need to bring more and more Indian students to these workshops. There is a wrong perception among Indian groups that Bellur is for foreign people as it is too expensive. We the group from Hyderabad tried our best to change this perception by participating regularly in the workshops conducted here.

I would like to conclude with the beautiful words of Rita Keller in her interview. She said, "All are welcome, there should not be a discrimination that a teacher is from India or Germany or any other country. We are all same entities, we learned the subject imparted by the same Guru, the subject is same and so do we. We are all one. So please welcome."

Iyengar Yoga Intensive at Ballari

The seed of thought for writing this article is sown by my teacher Smt. ZarnaMohan. One evening after the class, she asked me whether I am writing anything on the Ballari workshop. I said, I was busy and hadn't thought of it yet. I then came back home and gone to bed after dinner. The thought ignited by her sparked at mid night. I woke up at 2 Am and wasn't getting a sleep. So I observed my mind keenly. I do this often to induce sleep. Till this time I had yet to think of writing on Ballari workshop. Madam has given an idea to write but then my mind was working on to find a reason to write. I figured out the reasons for which I started this blog. Then I realized, it is this blog that inspired some students in Hyderabad to take up Iyengar yoga classes with Zarna Madam. It is this blog that brought my friend Mohit Garg to Zarna Madam when he was relocating from Pune to Hyderabad. He is now teaching beginners under her guidance. It is this blog that Introduced my friend Virupaksha Dani to get the feel of "Yoganusasanam" by Geeta Iyengar and there by introduced to Zarna madam. It is this blog that introduced me to a good friend Sunil Kolhatkar in Pune. He is now attending the classes of Prashant Iyengar at RIMYI in Pune. I made many good friends far across the nation and even abroad through this blog. This blog played a role in uniting people. Is this reason not enough to write a blog? Thinking this, I fell a sleep. Next morning when I woke up, I immediately put this thought on paper so that I don't forget. The seed is sown and it sprouted as well. It's time to grow.

Iyengar yoga in Ballari:

I would like to write few things about my friend Virupaksha Dani before I progress and share my experiences about the workshop. Inspired from my article on the "feel of Yoganusasanam 2014" on this blog Viru wrote me up saying that he is interested in attending the "Yoganusasanam 2015". I helped him up in the process of registration for the event and finding his accommodation at Balewadi in Pune. This is how we met and the friendship continued to Rita Keller's workshop in Bellur and Zarna madam's workshop in Rishikesh. Both were outstanding workshops in terms of exposure and learning yoga and yoga philosophy. I began to understand him better after our trip to char-dham immediately after Rishikesh workshop.

Viru is a dedicated practitioner and an Iyengar yoga teacher in a small town of Ballari in Karnataka. He has been practicing yoga since his young days but introduced to Iyengar yoga only 8 years ago in a RSS camp conducted by Raghavendra Shenoy in Mangalore. Inspired by the session, he went on to learn Iyengar Yoga from Sri. Raghavendra Shenoy at various camps and from Karunakaran in Mangalore. Few years later he began to teach local people in Police Gymkhana in Ballari. He gradually went on to establish an Iyengar yoga center called 'Yogasri' hiring a hall on rent at Bala Bharati School. With his dedication and hard work he acquired good number of students now. 

First Iyengar yoga intensive at Yogasri:

The foundation for the possible workshop is laid by Virupaksha in Rishikesh when he invited Zarna madam to Ballari in the month of April 2017.

Couple of months after our return from Chardham, he called me up and said 'Ram, I would like to invite Zarna madam to Ballari for a workshop. Do you think she will agree?' I advised him to write an email inviting her to Ballari. He wrote an email and even called her inviting to Ballari. Subsequently, after seeking some information she gave her nod for the workshop.

Viru was happy and so do I. He then called me up and invited me and Tulsi to Ballari. Since we just arrived from an expensive trip of char-dham and I still had some debts to repay; I said will let him know later. He began to call me again and again insisting to come with Tulsi.

I was not sure whether we could make our trip to Ballari till the last 5 days before the schedule. It was again because of Zarna madam and Parmeshji the Ballari trip happened. They assigned me a job to take yoga sessions for the staff of L&T for six days and from the proceeds I received, booked the tickets to Ballari 3 days before the event.

Tulsi and I reached Ballari two days before the event as we wanted to make sure that arrangements were made properly for the event. Rajesh Bagadi from Belgaum also joined us the same day.

Workshop Experience:

Finally the day has come as our teacher arrived Ballari on 2nd of September 2017.  It was certainly a good experience for the students of Ballari as that was their first exposure to a workshop with a senior teacher like Zarna madam. We could see the enthusiasm and joy in their faces. Madam won their accolades in a single session and touched their hearts by the end of the workshop with her humility and the class of her teaching.

As far as we are concerned it was a new kind of exposure for us. Though we have been associated with her for a long time, she always offer something new to learn. Ballari intensive was a different learning experience. This time we were not participating students but were observing and helping the students. A day before the event I observed Virupaksha's class. Looking at the students I realized that it would be really difficult for our teacher to help and adjust all the students single handedly. So I, Tulsi and Virupaksha took the role of volunteers helping and adjusting the students during the session. I must appreciate the spirit and enthusiasm of those students who let us adjust them freely without any hesitation as we were completely new to them. Within a single session they become very friendly and some even called us for assisting them into their pose.

Since the workshop was for beginners, madam tried to teach the basic principles of alignment, precision and sequencing. Among these, one thing got registered in my mind with some impact was about sequencing. She taught, not only there is a sequencing of asanas in Iyengar system but also there is sequence in every asana. She must have taught it before but it got registered here during this workshop with some impact.

When you are dealing with someone new, it takes time for the students and even the teacher to catch up things. Since it was a short workshop of only two days, neither the students nor the teacher had time to understand one another. Instead of asking them to go into their poses straight away, she had a short interactive session asking simple questions and replying to their queries. Within a very short time she brought ease in the students which helped them perform their asanas smoothly. But that doesn't mean the sessions were not intense. She made it clear that she means business and made sure that everyone gets his/her money's worth.

She always used to tell us, teaching a beginner is not easy unless you know the basics right. She used to emphasize on learning the basics right. During this workshop, we learned how a beginner understands the same instruction differently and how one should deal with them as a teacher. When I was teaching the beginners in the class, she used to tell me, Ram! You should restrain yourself and come down to the level of a beginner while teaching them. I still remember the first instruction when she assigned me the job to teach. She said, you should remember the state of your body and mind when you started yoga while teaching them. She reminded me again and again that don't teach them what you know but teach them what they can understand and do. Even after this I used to get carried away at times as restraining is not that easy. Sometimes, you feel that you are restrained but the fact will be otherwise. She then taught me to watch their eyes to know whether they are tired and see whether their faces are relaxed. Here in this workshop I learned how one has to be restrained. In-spite of all her experience and practice, at no moment she got carried away. A delight to watch her teaching.

I have got the opportunity to learn from different teachers and each one of them have some unique features. Zarna madam has one such unique feature of demonstrating the asana before instructing them to do as the visual presentation has greater impact on students than the audio. She demonstrates couple of times and will repeat again very patiently if any student asks her to do so.

  

A strange observation came to my mind. I was understanding the teachings with clarity as an observer than a participant. Most of her teachings from the workshop are afresh in my mind. I did not try to remember them but they are coming to my notice when I am practicing at home.

I remember when I was learning intermediate level 1 classes at RIMYI in Pune, I used to observe the intermediate level 2 classes in my leisure time. One day, observing the class from the stairs I found that my feet were tight and my hands were tensed and so are my eyes and the head. Though I was sitting and watching, the mind was doing the action along with others and as a result of that my nerves were tensed and the body got tight. Now I realized, that kind of anxiety to do has lessened in me to a great extent.

There was a therapy session also as a part of the workshop for people with different ailments. For the last one year I have been working with her in therapy classes at Hyderabad. I have seen so many people getting cured of serious ailments with her healing hands and expertise in the field of therapy. One such magical moment occurred with a 7 to 8 year old boy. The boy is suffering from Cerebral Palsy. On asking, she said that he has a neurological disorder caused by non-progressive brain injury or malformation that occurs while child's brain is under development. As a result of it body movement, muscle control, muscle coordination, muscle tone, reflex, posture and balance is affected.

Though the boy was able to walk but was walking on toes with heels lifted high and fumbling. Due to weakness in his muscles he was running rather walking due to the fear of falling. There was tremendous improvement in those two days. He could actually rest the heels and walk slowly when madam insisted him to press the heel on the floor while walking. The boy also worked with lot of understanding and intelligence. He was moving the exact muscles which she asked to move. With proper guidance and training he will surely recover soon. She explained us how she worked at him. She made him use the muscles that are working to mobilize the muscles that are not functioning.

 

Ballari people loved the way she conducted the therapy sessions. They were really happy the way she touched people. A lady got so impressed that she invited her for the lunch. She was rather insistent to take her to lunch and if not dinner. But due to time constrain she couldn't make it.

Organization of the Event:

Within no time the end has come. Since it was a short two day workshop; it ended quickly. Initially, I thought the workshop is too short but then at the end I felt it was apt for the level of beginners as the students were not used to this kind of extended sessions through out the day.

I must appreciate Virupaksha and all the students who participated in organizing the event smoothly as it is not a one man job.

The event was perfectly started with lightening ceremony by Zarna madam paying respects to Guruji and Patanjali. And ended equally on well note by felicitating her  by Virupaksha and the students of Yogasri, Ballari.

We returned from Ballari with lots of love and affection. On behalf of Zarna madam, I would like to thank Virupaksha and all the students for their love and regards. Special thanks to Mrs. Madhavi, Mrs. Lata and their entire family for the hospitality and love shown towards us.