The attendees of the Geeta Iyengar Birthday Intensive are
all given an ID number and color. Each
day the quadrants of color move around the stadium giving students different a
perspective and ultimately giving them a spot right in front of the stage.
On Day 4 of the intensive, I was at a better angle to
witness Geeta’s morning ritual on the stage.
It is one that always brings tears to my eyes. Her niece Abhijata lights a candle and Geeta
bows to a statue of Patanjali who codified the Yoga Sutras over 2500 years ago.
She bows to Krishnamacharya, the Guru who helped put the tapas, svadhyaya, and Isvarapranidanani (steadfast discipline, self
study, and devotion to God) in her father.
She also bows to her father, B.K.S. and her mother, Ramamani whom the Iyengar
Institute in Pune is named after.
I feel so grateful to be a part of this moment. I know so little. My avidya, ignorance, is vast. Yet the
feeling of love and respect for the people who take the time, patience, and
effort required in helping make us better human beings is something I do
understand. The moment I described above is a moment of deeply honoring those
Teachers every morning. Patanjali codified 196 Sutras to teach us step-by-step how to practice yoga, Krishnamacharya was a teacher to B.K.S. Iyengar who became a teacher, and Geeta's mother, like mothers all over the world are
teachers.
The intensive is very much about the responsibility, the
effort, the time, and the patience it takes to be a great teacher. B.K.S. Iyengar set very high and exacting standards. The intensive is a reminder of how much we have to keep learning, never letting our attention waiver in
order to pass his teachings along accurately – not rigidly, but with deep
understanding, respect, and love.
Every part of the day reflected this imperative. As we moved
through our poses, Geeta once again spotted individuals out in the crowd of
students to help demonstrate specific points. On the stage, we have witnessed
miraculous changes in the bodies of otherwise stiff and stuck individuals.
However, she also brought up students who we might otherwise overlook, because
they are thin and flexible. Don’t overlook
them, she insists.
Once again, she challenged our yogic eye to spot a young
girl’s caved-in floating ribs. Geeta asked us, why is this area coming in when
it should be opening? Perhaps because by opening it, it would make her feel
fat. We have to understand these things. It is a wrong action. However, it is
easy to overlook. As Geeta worked with the young girl, she realized the girl
didn’t understand, even though the action had changed, the full understanding wasn’t
there.
Geeta continued her teaching efforts by putting the young girl in Supta Virasana, a supine hero’s pose
that naturally expands the floating rib area. Geeta had Abhijata place two
blocks on the sides of the ribs a little away from the rib and encouraged the
girl to expand the area and touch the blocks. This simple action gave the girl
a visceral experience of what action is required. Therefore, new intelligence
resulted.
The young girl, such a trouper, took the stage a couple of
times to demonstrate how we must make the efforts to align students in such a
way that they not only become unstuck, but that they gain the intelligence to
work in the pose effectively. Geeta demands that of herself. Her father demanded that of himself. We must
demand that of ourselves.
While Geeta honors Patanjali, Krishnamacharya, her father
and mother, she also honors the students who are also her teachers. Like her father, she talks about how she is
always learning. We must honor the fact that she and her father have worked tirelessly
with hundreds of thousands of students with all kinds of issues. We must honor that they are showing us a way
to help all kinds of students become unstuck.
I have not written about the medical talks that have
happened here. However, students have come up on stage to talk, like Mark Zambon, the
veteran who lost his fingertips and both his legs and told his inspirational story
of how much Iyengar Yoga has helped not only his mind and body, as we might
experience, but his entire system, which was severely thrown off balance. I’m
sure there are thousands of these stories of personal experiences of
transformation from Iyengar Yoga.
Honoring the tradition and the legacy of BKS Iyengar is
honoring what it means to be a teacher in our chaotic world, in our chaotic
countries, in our chaotic cities, in our chaotic neighborhoods, in our chaotic lives, in our chaotic
bodies, in our chaotic minds, and in our lost spirit. Light. Discovery.
Transformation. Let us all bow
down to those who have given us and continue to give us that. May we all strive to teach what we know, what we've experienced for ourselves in whatever humble way possible to open a door or a window or a peep hole for someone else.
With palms folded, thank you, Geeta.
Thank you to all my teachers.
Namaste.
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