Geeta's niece and the granddaughter to B.K.S., Abhijata Sridhar-Iyengar took the stage in the afternoon portion of the conference to speak about the Darsana of Yoga and what distinguishes how her grandfather teaches it. A Darsana is a deep, thorough inquiry that seeks knowledge on essential nature. There are six Darsana in Indian philosophy and Patanjali codified Yoga for us over 2500 years ago through 196 aphorism or Sutras (threads).
In a methodical and humorously anecdotal way she explained how her grandfather taught the eight-limb path of Patanjali's Yoga by creating experiences. She told several stories to emphasize what differentiates her father's teaching method from other methods. As memory serves, she talked about the large weights in the practice room at RIMYI and how though usually the weights were used to weight the thighs or back, etc.; however, one day her grandfather had her stand the weight on its side, upright and asked her to balance on it in Dandasana. Needless to say, this was no simple feat. Every time she would sit on it, the weight would wobble. The fear of it toppling over and crashing onto the tile floor and risking breaking one of them, along with the mental battle of whether the feat was possible at all plagued her efforts.
What she learned from the experience and from her grandfather was that the weight wasn't moving, she was moving the weight and once she could steady herself - the weight would be steady. She used several personal experiences like these to express the need to gain what I believe she described as Citta Vritti Nirodha, Samskara Nirodha, and Dukha Nirodha - stilling the fluctuations of the mind, the antiquated impressions of the mind and the pains of the mind.
The method for removing these vritti is through Tapas, Svadyaya, and Ishvarapranidanani - burning desire and discipline, self-study, and surrender. Abhyasa or practice is just the beginning of Tapas. She explains that we practice and work and then we go on vacation and then we have to recover from our vacation. However, her grandfather practiced yoga, worked in yoga, and vacationed in yoga, which is what distinguishes Iyengar Yoga from other yoga. From his steadfast, uninterrupted efforts during his lifetime he is able to continue to teach us how to learn, how to practice, how to teach and how to live.
In a methodical and humorously anecdotal way she explained how her grandfather taught the eight-limb path of Patanjali's Yoga by creating experiences. She told several stories to emphasize what differentiates her father's teaching method from other methods. As memory serves, she talked about the large weights in the practice room at RIMYI and how though usually the weights were used to weight the thighs or back, etc.; however, one day her grandfather had her stand the weight on its side, upright and asked her to balance on it in Dandasana. Needless to say, this was no simple feat. Every time she would sit on it, the weight would wobble. The fear of it toppling over and crashing onto the tile floor and risking breaking one of them, along with the mental battle of whether the feat was possible at all plagued her efforts.
What she learned from the experience and from her grandfather was that the weight wasn't moving, she was moving the weight and once she could steady herself - the weight would be steady. She used several personal experiences like these to express the need to gain what I believe she described as Citta Vritti Nirodha, Samskara Nirodha, and Dukha Nirodha - stilling the fluctuations of the mind, the antiquated impressions of the mind and the pains of the mind.
The method for removing these vritti is through Tapas, Svadyaya, and Ishvarapranidanani - burning desire and discipline, self-study, and surrender. Abhyasa or practice is just the beginning of Tapas. She explains that we practice and work and then we go on vacation and then we have to recover from our vacation. However, her grandfather practiced yoga, worked in yoga, and vacationed in yoga, which is what distinguishes Iyengar Yoga from other yoga. From his steadfast, uninterrupted efforts during his lifetime he is able to continue to teach us how to learn, how to practice, how to teach and how to live.
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