One of the highlights of my teacher training in San Francisco was that we were taken to Samuel Merritt College in Oakland. To meet the dead. Or, I see dead people tour to quote my yoga teacher. I did not know what to expect as we were told this is not for everyone and people were asked to eat light or skip it. And, every reaction from the wanna be yoga teachers would be normal. We all reached there early in the am. The person in charge of the lab read paragraphs from Siddhartha and Bhagavad Gita and how we need to thank them (the dead) for the offer of studying them. In short, we were not allowed to say anything inappropriate about the dead was the message. We wore thin gloves, divided ourselves into small groups and off we went inside.

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I have always fancied having someone guide me in my Yoga studies. A lot of books say that great progress can be made when you have a guru, as a guru can show you the way. Sounds great, but I am pretty sure I am not going to find anyone who can fit this role. Of late, I do not want it either. I am afraid that the person will let me down. Last year, I was at an ashram in India. I thought I liked a teacher who could explain things very well. I also felt he practiced asanas and everything else that he was talking about. Integrity is super important for a role model. Then I got to know he was after a girl in my class. There is essentially nothing wrong with that. Just that he had claimed a completely different lifestyle in class. That was the last time I ever wanted a guide, teacher or a guru. Now I look for inspiration among my own friends, yogis or non yogis.

I am writing this as I read about this guru called Nithyananda. Normally I do not like to write about such people, they do not deserve my time and space on this blog. This guy has this ashram just outside of my home town, Bangalore. I heard about this guy the entire time I was in India last year. The youngest swami in India. One of the yogis that I had met was a follower of this man. She would meditate on this man and she had told me so much about him. I kept thinking to myself, what would happen if this guru is a fake. It would be such a waste of time and energy. I simply don’t trust anyone who lives in an ashram and claims he is a guru. True to that thought, I read there is so much confusion caused by this man.

This is not a film review. Although I thought the film by the same title was quite nice. This post is about my Yoga education. I was not very sure about teaching yoga when I had signed up for the training. I could not do most of the asanas in a picture perfect way. I am way better now, but far from perfection. Anyway, I was simply drawn to Yoga. After quite some time battling with injuries, I have decided to teach.

I like teaching Yoga. It gives me a completely different aspect or angle of yoga. Sometimes I refer to my notes as to how I can explain something in the most minimum of words. When I taught my first class, I was using a few sentences to which my student was not responding. I mean, I know this asana so well, but how do I convey it to the other person who is relying just on my words. I try to demonstrate and then all goes well. But that is incorrect, a few glitches of being a first time instructor. I have improved it since then and I also remembered one of my teachers say that the yoga instructor should be able to convey every single move just by dialog. When I practice on my own, I do not need to work on how I should convey this. Teaching classes add this layer to my practice which I enjoy. I also notice that trying to come up with a class structure keeps my home practice interesting. I refer back to my notes and there is so much out there which I sort of forget to practice in my self practice. Or a pranayama technique which I have not practiced in ages. All in all, teaching yoga improves my home practice.

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I realize how precious my knees are, every single time I get hurt. My left knee hurts so bad that I cannot do any ’serious’ yoga. I mean the typical western vinyasa flow with tons of warrior poses. Western vinyasa flow is what I normally practice, if my knees were any good. Now I am practicing ‘mild’ yoga to heal my knee. It is so ironic that my knee got hurt while practicing yoga. I should correct it, I got hurt while doing yoga mindlessly. Led by a famous teacher in an ashram in India along with 250 people. It happened 10 months ago and it still hounds me. It took a long time to heal while I was in India and I reached a stage where I could actually practice Mysore style astanga. I was doing good for a while, I had forgotten all about the knee pain or that I was injured so recently. The knee injury resurfaced back in the last few days, when I was in a hurry to get back to my daily practice. Now, all I think of is my knee. I know it hurts every single millisecond.

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Astanga according to The Yoga man Patanjali, is the eight parts that need to be followed to reach yoga. Asana or the hatha yoga is just one small component of the entire picture. For whatever reason, Pattabhi Jois (PJ) has redefined the word astanga to mean his vigorous athletic style of Yoga. So, I get into this confusion with all astanga yogis (ayogis), the pretty pale young things, who I come across in Mysore.

I was always aware that this word has been misused. Then it slowly dawns on me that another important word in Yoga has also been redefined. Either by PJ himself or his followers. I keep hearing conversations like, “I practice hatha yoga, not astanga” or the other way around. I ask the ayogis what is the difference. They tell me astanga is where one moves from one asana to the other with a vinyasa thrown in. Hatha is where one stays in a pose longer. Ok, Patanjali would be quite unhappy to hear the ayogis speak like this. Any physical yoga practice is hatha yoga, as far as I know. Flow, astanga, power, bikram, sivananda, Krishnamacharya KYM style, you name it. All of them are hatha yoga. So, astanga is nothing but a “style” of hatha yoga.

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I am at a Mysore class in Mysore. Astanga class taught the Mysore style is awesome. The teacher does not instruct the class as to what to do, there is no dialogue, no music. Everyone is on their own, practicing the standard astanga series. The teacher is there to help you understand the asana better and provide the right adjustments so you know how far you can go.

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I am of the opinion that yoga instructors should not give any advice regarding diet, vitamins, rajas, tamas, chakras and gem stones. For one, yoga instructors are not qualified in that field. So, why spew out some half baked knowledge(?) to the poor students. Anyone can be an instructor in a couple of weeks or weekends. There are online ayurveda courses which can get you certified in no time, so one can say cool words like doshas, rajas, tamas and kapha.

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In the west, Surya namaskars are generally associated with building heat and sweat. If you want a sweaty class, just add in some Surya namaskars at the beginning, is what I was told. This probably was one of the reasons that I did not like Surya namaskars apart from the fact I could not do a Chaturanga before. I used to think, if I need to sweat, I could easily run up and down the hills of SF. This was quite unsettling as I always felt there was more to this.

Then I ended up at KYM, where one can find the real explanation to all things Yoga. One of my teachers at KYM mentioned that Surya namaskar is a complete exercise. (more…)

I have been vagabonding for the last seven months. Been checking out places, taking courses and visiting ashrams. I travel with a backpack which is a day pack. It is small but is quite sufficient for me. I carry a laptop, camera, a few clothes, toiletries, a pair of slippers, a few books and a yoga mat.

Actually this is all I possess right now. I do have some more books, a sleeping bag and a suitcase  which I will pick up later from storage. The most expensive thing I have in my life right now is a laptop. (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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