2009 was an exciting year for me, yoga wise. I did get to do a lot of asanas, get introduced to two exciting men- Sri Krishnamacharya and Patañjali (all dead men), read up tons of books on yoga. I was away from my desk job, wandering around in tropical places. Mangoes and tender coconut water, my top two reasons for anyone to move to India. It was not all mangoes and coconuts, I did face a huge hurdle in the form of knee injury. Perhaps, I was seeking asana enlightenment at a pace not suitable for my body. It is just about healing now, after a year.
Even though I practiced a lot of yoga, I was grounded when my knee was hurting. This is what made me realize that practices like astanga and western vinyasa classes are great during healthy times. But they don’t take care of you during difficult times. It is like having an exciting life when you make lots of money and hang out with all the cool people. When the times get tough, the cool people have vanished. Just one or two people still hang out with you. KYM is exactly the friend who saw me through the tough times. The therapy class designed for my knee injury at KYM helped me understand the healing power of yoga and the actual meaning of Vinyasa. For this, I will always be grateful to KYM. That does not mean I will not practice astanga or the North American Vinyasa. They are quite cool, I will give them that. I do enjoy them, but I understood more about actual Yoga at KYM.
I do hope my knee injury is so 2009. I want 2010 to be a year free of injuries, I will stay within my limits and still explore yoga to the fullest.
Patañjali at a Yoga school in Mysore.
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I agree with you, I think that yoga is pure physical and mental therapy; unfortunately, in the west a lot of people think it’s “cool fitness”. And yoga cikitsa (physical therapy) is much more than faith… we are just beginning to discover what Sri Krishnamacharaya taught almost since a century ago. (check at http://insciences.org/article.php?article_id=8090).