Fourth Post from India

Tuesday, 05 January 2010, 8:30 pm

Yesterday I met Anjali and Arwin’s second son Susha and his wife Aditi. I also met their one grandson Raunak. Raunak is awesome. He started up a conversation right away about subjects you might not expect from a sixteen year old. Quantum physics, world peace, compassion, the environment stuff like that. He spoke from the heart and is just the kind of person we need in this world. He attends a school that prepares him to be an international student and he hopes to go to school in California. I knew that Raunak was a classical singer in the Indian style and I asked him about the music festival I heard about that is this weekend (Sawai Gandharva). I was asking about tickets and the location and Aditi made a call on her phone and asked me how many tickets I wanted. Three please, and how much do I need to pay. She was talking to her cousin and smiled and said, “Complementary.” It’s a four day festival. How cool is that? I’ll be able to give one pass to Bill and let Don and Heather and others share the other pass. Remember, if you need something to get done in India I am your man. I did not get to talk to Susha and Aditi much but I hope to. Like their other son Kedar, Susha is an interior designer. They design custom furniture and anything to do with inside environments. They are very successful. Their office is across the street from where I stay. Aditi is an artist and they have two daughters 5 and 7.

I took a photo to soda boy yesterday. You should have seen his smile. I should have taken his picture with the picture.

Prashant’s class was awesome today. He is a character. Here is the general format. We are all sitting in Sukasana or some other seated pose. He walks in and an assistant greets him and attaches the remote microphone to record the class (all of his classes are available to purchase on a cd). He sits on the stage and starts to instruct us. Sit still, inhale, deep exhale, body, breath, mind and we do three OM’s and the invocation to Patanjali. Then one group goes to the ropes for something and the others stay on the mats. The women always go to the ropes first. Then we cycle from the mats to the ropes for most of class. You hardly ever end up back to the mat you setup and people will jump in front of you and steal your setup. A couple of classes ago I set my mat up to the wall while this woman stood right next to me and watched. As soon as I went to get a strap she took my spot. I get how it works now but I still will not steal someone’s spot.

The sequence today was similar to a few days ago:

Sukasana
Bharadvajasana
Marichyasana III
Rope Sirsasana / Utthita Trikonasana / Utthita Parsvakonasana – alternating groups at the rope wall and hanging ropes
Rope I / Rope II / Utthita Trikonasana / Utthita Parsvakonasana – alternating groups at the rope wall
Salamba Sarvangasana

Prashant taught that we needed to have the correct ingredients and know when to use them. He suggested that we join the embodiment club and that we learn how to prepare ourselves. He said we need to be intellectual in many ways in our practice. He wants us to learn the Kriyas and how they relate to the body-breath-mind. He asked us, “Is Iyengar Yoga only about the body?” He instructed that we should not just go for the body related benefits although that is fine. Look to the other benefits to the breath, to the mind.

When you straighten the legs what is the benefit to the breath?
When you straighten the legs what is the benefit to the mind?
When you lift the chest what is the benefit to the breath?
When you lift the chest what is the benefit to the mind?

I am getting into the practice groove. It is really nice to have three hours to work on stuff. It is a little distracting to be in the room with Mr. Iyengar and Geeta but I get over it quickly. It’s fun to see how everyone practices. A lot of rope work that I have not seen before.

Anjali put my lunch in a tiffen today because I had the first of three Auyrvedic massage treatments to go to and the abdominal massage would have been uncomfortable with food in my belly. I scheduled with Nana to give me a ride. My destination was Ayurjoti, Kerala Auyrvedic Marma Chikitsalayam. I had a basic total body massage and what is called shirodhara. Shirodhara involves the pouring of room temperature oil with herbs in it over your forehead. The herbs are customized to your temperament and the whole process takes about 1 ½ hours. A little over an hour for the massage and about 20 minutes of the oil over the forehead thing. The oil is reused the next two days. The massage was heavy on the oil and not at all like deep tissue. More like very firm rubbing. It was awesome. I think I can handle two more days. Please wire some funds to Ayurjoti so I can keep this up.

I had some photos printed of the kinds in the alley and I went by there to pass them out. These people are the happiest I have seen. The kids were so psyched to get their photos. Some of them had on the same clothes as in the pictures. Again, big smiles. I got in on two bad mitten games. It was so fun. Look at the pictures below for the two boys with paddles. They said I was pretty good and thanked me for the games. I had another volley with an older boy that went back-and-fourth about 20 times. We were laughing our bums off. This could get expensive. Walk through the alley, pass out photos, take some photos……..pass out photos, take some photos. I guess my last pass through the alley I’ll have to leave my camera at home.

After my dinner I walked to the Pataleshwar Caves to photograph and check out the Puja that goes on every night at 7:15. Remind me to wear my mask if I walk for more than ten minutes. The walk was about a mile and a half on busy streets. It was not until I sat down in the temple that I could feel the pollution in my nose and lungs. Coming from the clean air of Washougal this country Yogi was having a reaction to the poison in the air. I took some photos which I’ll have to explain some other time because I don’t know what it all means. The cave was carved out of solid rock around 8-9th century A.D. I stayed for the ceremony which lasted for abut 15 minutes. I thought the place would be filled with devotees but there were only about ten people. Bells ringing, hand clapping, chanting, and the burning of incense. Wow, I fit right in – the clueless westerner clapping. Two young men talked to me after the puja and wanted my phone number. As I walked away, with my mask on, I received the following text message: “Luving Frnds soo many reasons make frnds soo close, but only 1 reason can separate them. So, maintain d frndship wid gr8 care & luv” I think it was from the two young men?

I talked to two Muslims at the caves. It was my chance to find out where they pray. Soon I’ll check out the Christian and Muslim places of worship. Nana has a tour planned for me.

Wednesday, 05 January 2010, 8:30 pm

I went to the not so secret practice this morning. Bill let me know that Pandu said that it was fine to practice at the Institute on Wednesdays from 7-9 am. It was me and one other student and Prashant for an hour until Bill arrived. The practice was nice and quiet. The studio was kind of dark until the sun came fully up and the energy was just right to practice. I like to practice in the morning. It is the perfect time.

After practice I went across the street to the batik place. There is an old man there who offered to give me a blessing. I sat in front of him while he chanted and then he held his hands over my head for a while. What a sweet offering. He asked me to come back another time for more blessings. Can’t pass that up.

I had my second massage and an Auyrvedic consultation with the doctor. The doctor did an in depth evaluation and suggested some herbs and diet changes. The massage was great.

Thursday

I made it to Prashant’s class but I was exhausted from my massage and running around. I did the best I could and then did a restorative practice after Prashant’s class.

It was similar to the class above but we did

Supta Padangusthasana I
Supta Padangusthasana II

and the standing poses were:

Utthita Hasta Padangusthasana
Utthita Parsva Hasta Padangusthasana

Prashant Gems.

Gesture (mudra) for posture (asana) / posture for gesture
Go beyond asana to gesture

Naps are underrated, so I went home and took a nice nap.

I had my third massage and did a little running around with Nana. Just so you know if you like green tea bring some with you when you come to India.

I had an excellent pranayama class with an Indian teacher. She did not introduce herself so I don’t know her name yet. The teaching was more like western teachers but not at all like Geeta or Prashant. She had us in Savaasana for pranayama and afterwards she demonstrated what she would have wanted us to do. When we came to seated the same instructions were used. Simple and well placed. Thighs down after getting the knees to be a little bit lower than the hip bones, lift the chest vertically, broaden the chest horizontally, recede the abdominal area and then Jalandhara Bandha. The teacher gave me a few hands on adjustments that really helped my understanding of the seated position. Great class. When it is your first time you have an Indian teacher for Pranayama. My friends rave over Geeta’s pranayama classes. I’ll have to get one on CD and try it.

Did you know there are no scoop laws in India? When walking you have to look left, right and down remembering that traffic runs in the opposite direction as the US. You have to look down to make sure you don’t step in poop or fall into a large hole. This is harder at night and early morning. No problems yet.

As I mentioned before the traffic here is wild. Here is how it works: pick a lane, make a lane, drive in the opposite way of traffic, lots of trucks say on the back “horn please!” because the protocol is to honk when you are on the side of another vehicle – and it works!

Notice the Mother and child on a scooter in the slide show.

There are some pictures in the slide show of the outside of the institute. I’m going to get some inside pictures soon. I want to show you how nicely they keep the blankets.

The Classical Indian music festival was over the top. Although I did not know it the musicians represent the best of Indian music. These two were particularly amazing: Pandit Jasraj and Pandit Tarun Bhattacharya. Pandit Jasraj is 80 years old and blew us all away with his vocals. I took Grant and Nicola who are here from Canada. They stayed for two performers and then left before Pandit Jasraj. Pandit Tarun Bhattacharya plays the santoor which is an 80 stringed instrument. Amazing. Tonight (Friday) I am taking Jonathan and Bill (not my friend Bill from Oregon) who are here form New Orleans. A friend from New York told Jonathan, about the festival and he was psyched to go. Jonathan, is a musician and knows who the performers are.

A jovial Indian, kind of intoxicated, sat down next to me and we had a conversation. He was happy I was here and told me how much he loved the music and then he looked at me and said, I love you. Then he said this about Pandit Jasraj “He will make you stimulate!” “He will take you to another world!

Here is a video clip of the music.