Can a yoga teacher be fat? I could not help thinking about this, when a fat teacher, sort of obese, taught a class at a yoga ashram in India. He was supposedly the guru and the face of the ashram. The class was okay, but I was not used to this style. He was mostly seated on a chair and he walked around once or twice. Before he taught this class, I was told many times that this guru was going to teach on this particular day and the energy of the class was going to explode. We were primed up to this class. I felt no explosion of any sorts.

I wouldn’t ask for my money back for the class, that’s just about how much I liked the class. I like my teachers lean and inspiring. That way, I know they are practicing their yoga, they are grounded and in touch with yoga and are not just talk. Isn’t the body a telltale of one’s yoga practice? (more…)

I was wondering what was happening in India when Patanjali wrote the Yoga Sutras. First of all, India was not called India at that time. It was still known as Sanathana dharma.

The first Sutra says Yoga is open to all and there are no restrictions. This got me wondering  as to how open it really was, as Yoga Sutras is written in Sanskrit and if women would practice. Sanskrit was not understood by all as it was a scholarly language. I had assumed that the only religion followed was based on the Vedas and that the so called upper caste was the only one that practiced Yoga. So, I had to read more.

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It translates to being alert and comfortable. Patanjali’s Yoga Sutra says that every asana practiced should have both these qualities. There must be alertness without tension and relaxation without dullness or lethargy.

The Yoga Sutra’s purpose of this verse is to explain how one can practice the asanas to reach the goal of Yoga (the asanas by themselves are just a means to Yoga), which is to still the mind, to observe, to prepare for meditation. Asanas have to be practiced with Sthiram Sukhamasanam.

If the breath is labored then there is no point in being in an asana. It is better to back off and do the pose to a degree that a person is capable of doing. If an already existing pain is stopping us to perform a pose, we can explore why such a pain exists. This leads to examining our habits to understand our habit patterns and ourselves.

On the other hand, one might feel the need to be in hanumanasana (full split) when one is not ready for the pose. Not paying attention to the phrase Sthiram Sukhamasanam can easily lead to yoga injuries. There should be ease, grace and beauty in the practice. There is a saying in yoga – no pain, no pain. There is definitely a world of difference between advancing step by step versus forcing to be in a pose which may lead to an injury eventually.

I read about Patanjali’s Sthiram Sukhamasanam in Heart of Yoga by TKV Desikachar.

Yoga Sutra refers to a beautiful image from Indian mythology to illustrate the concept. The story tells of Ananta, the king of snakes, floating on the ocean, his long snake body coiled to form a comfortable couch on which Vishnu lies. The snake’s thousand heads reach up and out like a protective umbrella over Vishnu. On the umbrella rests our earth.

The snake’s body is soft and gentle enough (sukha) to serve as a couch for a god and at the same time is firm and steady enough (sthira) to support the whole earth. We should endeavor to bring those same qualities of gentleness and steadiness to our asana practice, all the while making sure that we exert progressively less effort in developing them. The asana practice needs to be sensible and well structured, advancing step by step, developing our practice in accordance with our abilities.

Have you ever thought that you need to be a vegan or a vegetarian to practice yoga? A few schools of yoga in the west actively advise students to be vegans. The meaning of nonviolence that a yogi is expected to follow is interpreted as not eating meat or animal products (milk, eggs, cheese etc).

I am not very sure of that interpretation and think that eating meat does not go against the yogic principles. Of course, factory farmed meat and animal products will fall into the violent category and would break the yoga ethics.

I hear a lot of veganism being related to yogis in the west. I read up about eating more soy and consuming tofu to compensate for the animal protein. There does not seem to be a happy solution here. Conflicting reports on eating too much soy can be found in many places on the internet. Too much of anything may not be good. Balance is the key and a yogi should know that.

On a related note, I do tend to go with Michael Pollan’s advice from the interesting book In defense of food. He says, do not eat anything that your grandmother would not eat or recognize.

What is your opinion on this important issue? Do you think that not eating meat is a fair interpretation or a confused one of nonviolence? Can you be a yogi and eat meat? Should yoga schools not dispense any eating advice at all?

On the other hand, if you are Michael Phelps, you would not be confused and would know exactly what to eat.

I remember going to a yoga class many years ago out of curiosity. It turned out quite nice and then I would go to a class once in a while. When work gets stressful I would show up in a class and find it very helpful. I am not sure what triggered a change for me to crave a yoga class, may be it was the desk job. The day would feel sort of incomplete if I did not go to a class. This was getting close to being addicted to yoga. I would show up more regularly and then decided I need to enroll for a teacher training and I want to just dive deep into this and teach. What a transition! I hear these stories so often in my training class. People are drawn to this because of an injury, stress, a career change, or just the first career for some, or some are drawn to the athleticism and grace of certain yoga styles.

Now that so many people are in this for the long haul as teachers or dedicated practitioners, I am wondering how someone can keep it going on this path. Does one need a guru, mentor, adviser, coach to continue or if we should be able to figure it all out on our own from here on. Or may be keep taking classes on different teachings from time to time.

Roll back time to thousands of years back in India, you hear stories of students seeking a teacher, the teacher would reject the student saying the student is not ready yet. When the time is ready, it could be after many years (even lifetimes!) the teacher initiates the student to a spiritual life. This calls for the utmost discipline, dedication, learning the scriptures, sacrifice and following a strict lifestyle dedicated to spiritual life.

I came across a section in the book Heart of Yoga by TKV Desikachar that discusses the concept of a guru. A guru is one who can show one a way. The guru helps you find your own path, your own way and not follow somebody else’s or even the guru’s way.

Back to now, I am not sure of how much of it can be followed. Yoga survives in a different format with classes being held in a huge group setting. To make our practice richer, we can learn and follow a yogic life and keep looking for a mentor. For some reason, if we seek out a mentor and do not hear back because you are not the right student or the teacher does not have enough time, then we will have to figure out a way to grow in our path. For now, books will have to be my guru.

If you have thoughts on this as how to find a mentor, or even if we need one, please leave a note in the comments section.

I have noticed that it is quite hard for me to keep up with the yoga practice while traveling. I have read about airplane yoga where you do asanas while being seated. You are thousands of feet in the air, your neighbors are watching a movie or leaning on your seat. You are trying to get some stretches and taking in deep breaths to keep your cool. Add in some more standing stretches and sirsasana without causing a spectacle while waiting in the baggage claim to relieve some tension and to feel energized.

Besides that, I would like to know how to keep up once you are at the destination without sounding freaky, obsessed with the practice that you cannot survive without it. Most of the time I travel with people that are not inclined to do yoga. Sometimes it is hard to be motivated to roll out the mat and do even a few asanas, it could be the jet lag or just being lazy, lethargic, sluggish or it could be the lack of time.

I am wondering how my fellow yogis keep themselves motivated to practice yoga on the go. Got inspiration?