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.

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I am sure most people know this already. But, it took me a while to understand this myself. When I started a serious yoga practice last year, I got to know I cannot go into a sandwiched paschimottanasana as in classic pose. I mean, I cannot get my stomach completely on my thighs and have a flat spine.

Surrender is normally the word associated with paschimottanasana. My favorite teacher came over to help me figure out and she said I have backward tilted pelvis and that is why I am far from the sandwich and the surrender. (more…)

When I decided to take a break from work, I thought that I could do Yoga 24×7, buzzing with om all the time. I have definitely studied a lot of yogic texts and have improved my home practice significantly. When I was working full time and living in SF, I would attend a yoga class almost everyday. I was quite regular even when I was working. I would so look forward to finish my work and get to the mat.

Now that I am not working, I have all the time at my disposal. I am not sure if that  is  such a good thing. Having so much free unstructured time does not mean that I am ‘doing’ more yoga. I think I am doing just as much when I was working full time.

Sometimes, when I get on the mat in the mornings, I get this feeling that I should read Sri Krishnamcharya’s books for the thousandth time to see how his practice was in Tibet. I need to figure out the specifics of a Kalari pose, was it 75 degrees or 90 degrees between the spine and the legs? Or how can I get the special powers as described by Patañjali. I think I should learn to levitate. (more…)

In India one will often hear the phrase, ‘when the time is right’. When the time is right, one will clear the exams, get in to the college that you always wanted to, find the right job, get married, have babies and so on. It is endless. For anything to materialize, the time must be right.

I had never paid any attention to this phrase and quite disliked it. But now I think there is some truth to that. I will explain myself. I had access to the book Bhagavad Gita right from the time I have been a child.  My mother had a copy, my grandmother, my neighbors and just about everyone had a copy. Except my school, as it was Catholic. (more…)