Impressions of India: Geeta's Birthday Intensive Day 3

Geeta Iyengar came onto the stage today with a fierce desire to reinvigorate the preliminary actions of poses.  I don’t know if she spent the last couple of days looking upon the vast number of us and seeing tragically incorrect alignment or what, but it was apparent she was determined to be sure the details of the actions were coming across clearly -- even to advanced students and teachers.

Perhaps she feels the weight of her responsibility to assure we all understand the precise actions. She alluded to not knowing how much longer she would live and if we don't pay attention, once she is gone these details will be lost forever. We can’t assume we have it and let our attention waver. Attention fails us all the time.  We have to constantly check in with ourselves and make sure we are present.

Though she is teaching to over a thousand students, she teaches as if it is a small group. Somehow, she can effortlessly spot an error on a student in the third row quadrant of the back corner of the stadium.  How? It is her well developed yogic eye, and through her ability to see us all she creates a very unifying experience. 

We started in sitting poses and moved to standing poses. She made a point to discuss what she was doing and why.  Sitting poses should never be done first for beginning students, because their backs are not experienced enough to start that way. However, the students in the intensive have at least three years experience; therefore, she expects them to be able to sit upright from the beginning or know what props are needed to do so.

Once again, she spoke about the nadis or energy channels.  When we broke down the stages of Baddha Konasana to Upavistha Konasana and repeated the two poses, she talked about how the first pose activates the energy and the second holds it. She used this as an example of the importance of not only understanding the detailed actions of the pose, but to also understand what energy is being activated and how to work with that energy.

The two poses also enhanced our efforts in the next pose Ardha Padmasana, half lotus. This pose became a very interesting subject where some of the preliminary actions were emphasized with great attention to the rotation of the calf, knee, and thigh that was also taught in Baddha Konasana earlier. The pulling of the metatarsal of the top leg was taught in an early lesson in Svastikasana. Linking the lessons from all the earlier poses she gave the deeper instructions needed in the half lotus pose. 

Apparently, she wasn’t seeing that we had learned from the earlier poses or even seeing how she was furthering the lesson. So, she stopped and started again. She re-demo'd the action and had the camera's point in different directions for better viewing. She reiterated again and again our responsibility to pay attention. It is this outer attention that teaches the inner attention needed for Pranayama.

In our standing poses she talked about the infinity in the skin and the connection between the brain and the skin. 'Tell the skin what to do.' It will respond. She's right. You'll be amazed. We also worked a lot in Urdhva Namaskarasana, upward prayer pose and on "breaking the stiffness" by keeping our elbows straight, pressing our arms behind our ears and engaging the upper 'dorsal' area.

Geeta's attention never waivers.  She has such developed yogic eyes and ears.  I believe her reasoning for not allowing note taking in class is not only because attention waivers, but because we miss the opportunity to develop this yogic eye and ear. I have not taken a single note during class and have challenged myself to develop my ears and eyes and not be so dependent on my pen to remember.

Developing our yogi eyes and ears is a skill that will serve us in so many ways on the mat and off it.
It's worth the extra effort. When you witness Geeta's tireless efforts you want to put forth more in every way you can.

We ended with Sarvangasana and Sirsasana. Take a moment and imagine over a thousand people doing shoulder stand and head stand at the same time.  It's a kick to be a part of this.

Thank you, Geeta.

Namaste.