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."
