The Belle of Bellur: Four Days of Gratitude with Abhijata Iyengar - Day 4

Celebrating BKS Iyengar’s birthday From the soil of his birth and in Bellur, India, and supporting his dream through the Bellur Trust  is a gesture. His granddaughter, Abhijata Sridha Iyengar expressed the emotions of love, respect, and reverence, all of those who have been touched by his work felt. We wanted to honor his birthday whether we ever got a chance to meet him in person or not. His energy is still very present. His life’s work continues to make it possible for people from all walks of life to experience the transformation of yoga.

Many refer to him as Guruji. It is from the word guru or bringer of light. It is very fitting for someone who put yoga into a language the modern world could understand —regardless of country, class, race, gender, age, or physical abilities or limitation. “Access” is a term we hear a lot relevant these days, and Guruji sought to find ways to offering any willing students access to the transformation of yoga.

Since its origins somewhere between the fifth and third centuries BCE, yoga has evolved and been packaged in innumerable ways. Diving into its depths is a daunting task, which is why BKS Iyengar’s work is such a gift. Anyone who has had the opportunity to observe or assist in the Ramamani Iyengar Memorial Yoga Institute (RIMYI) therapy classes located in Pune, Maharashtra, has witnessed the healing powers of his work. It is why he has students from all over the globe. It’s not that he thought himself god-like as so many with his kind of influence tend to think of themselves. He worked, played, lived, and breathed yoga with the highest integrity any man can have. He gave us a learning method that aligns and connects us, mind, and body, because he knew once that happens, the yoga can do the yoga.

Tamas - inert, dull

Rajas - fire, dynamic

Sattvic - luminosity

There are three qualities of nature or Gunas: Tamas, solidity, Rajas, dynamism, Sattva, luminosity. They are ever-present and changing throughout nature and life. Abhijata brought awareness of the Gunas and the transformative power of yoga in her final class. She began and ended with a Savasana or corpse pose. She pointed out the vast difference of experience between the two asana. For some of us, it was very early morning; for some, after lunch, others, it was evening. Time, place, weather, level of study all affect the experience. Abhijata highlighted the Sutra of Sage Patanjali, which BKS Iyengar transcribes as “Perfection in an asana is achieved when the effort to perform it becomes effortless and the infinite being within is reached.”

II.47 prayatna shaithilya ananta samapattibhyam

Beginners may experience a generalized dullness, which is why Iyengar Yoga emphasizes standing poses in early training. They wake up the body. In Utthita Hasta Padasana, extended hands and legs pose, Abhijata taught with instructions such as lift the kneecaps and thighs and extend the arms from the sternum: the right sternum out to the fingertips and left sternum to the fingertips. Clear actions required the body and mind to engage progressively from the outer skin inwards to our muscles, bones, and nerves. The tamasic dullness moved into a more rajasic active state. Asana in an Iyengar class require intense focus and effort. Repetition allows that focus and effort to evolve. When we can better align and connect the mind and body, we move into another stage, a more rhythmic flow of effort, and a less effortful luminous state. These qualities of dullness, activity, and luminosity cycle within and around us day-to-day, moment-by-moment, class to class, asana to asana. With continuous practice, we can mindfully utilize these qualities of nature. When we need rajas, we can call upon it. When we are angry or agitated and we need to pause, we can call upon tamas. The harmony or balance of the two is sattva, so it is the more luminous state. We can learn to calibrate ourselves to adjust to inward changes or help us deal with outward changes in our environment.

In class, Abhijata generated rajas after the first few asana. She paused less between the asana, the rigor and intensity forced focused effort and then we experienced asana from the beginning of class again, now the effort was less effortful, the rigor and repetition transformed the body and mind, so by the time we got to Savasana, corpse pose for the second time, we were now acutely present with our legs, feet, ankles, thighs, hips, abdomen, chest, arms, neck, head, ears, eyes, mouth, nose and breath. We could actively surrender to earth from which we came and with it perhaps more conscious gratitude towards the man who helped us get there.

Iyengar Yoga is an experience not to be missed.

Thank you, Abhijata, for your willingness, your time, effort, and insight; Kishore for all of your patience and support; all of the panelists for demonstrating the poses and the many prop alternatives in the Iyengar repertory to address specific issues. I am grateful to you all. None of this could be possible without the birth of BKS Iyengar. Our continued experience, learning, and sharing of Iyengar Yoga can give him many happy returns.

Namaste.

A Time To Battle Darkness and Bring On The Light.

It’s Scorpio Season! In the West, that is. Many celebrate Halloween this time of year —a holiday evolved from a Celtic harvest festival called Samhain that ushers in the darkness of winter. In the East, Buddhists, Hindus, Jains, and Sikhs celebrate the victory of light over darkness during this season. Rama-Chandra, an incarnation of Vishnu, battled the demons, and his success is celebrated with a festival known as Diwali or 'row of lights.'

All those born under this sign of Scorpio or at a time when the constellation appeared to be rising in the eastern horizon have had to come face-to-face with the shadowside of human nature. It is what the fixed water sign of Scorpio brings to our awareness from October 23 to November 22.

The sign of Scorpio is ruled by both Mars and Pluto. Since astronomers didn't discover its co-ruler, Pluto, until the 1930s, Mars took the role as Scorpio's first ruler. Once Pluto came into view, it received all of the dark, passionate, transformational aspects of Scorpio. With its dual rulership of Mars (God of fire and war) and Pluto (God of death and the underworld), Scorpio season is not one that goes by unnoticed.

Of course, you might ask what do constellations and planets in the sky have to do with us? Well, Astrology came about like everything else does, as a belief, shaped by perceived evidence, and evolved by a story. When ancient stargazers looked into the sky, the Milky Way became the unfertilized whelm of souls. "As above, so below," is a common maxim from The Emerald Tablet of Hermes Trismegistus. According to author, Dennis W. Hauck the original text is more like "That which is Below corresponds to that which is Above, and that which is Above corresponds to that which is Below, to accomplish the miracle of the One Thing.”

Hermes credits the Zoroastrians and the Astrology of the World for initiating the cosmology around the ever-growing body of astrological narratives. The constellations, their ruling planets, and the aspects they make to each other are said to create energetic tendencies, opportunities, and challenges. The ancients found the set of stars they attributed to a Scorpion with its stinger raised and appearing to emerge from a crack in the sky. The story that evolved associating this crack in the darkest part of the sky with the underworld - where we battle death and are reborn.

When Scorpio is on the horizon, the constellation Orion, the hunter, is in the underworld and visa-versa. Artemis, goddess of the moon (and found in the constellation of Cancer), plays the intermediary and diplomat keeping balance in nature, assuring animals are not killed for sport but only food. The constellation of Scorpio is said to have been placed in the sky as a reward for slaying Orion before it killed the bull (Taurus constellation). The epic plays out endlessly above us.

The Sun entered the sign of Scorpio on October 23. Before that Venus, the planet of love, value systems, and all things feminine went into Scorpio on October 8 and a New Moon (intense new beginnings) in Scorpio happened on October 27 (interestingly, the same time as Diwali). The month of October ends with Mercury appearing to go backward or retrograde in the sign of Scorpio. Mercury, the planet of communications, short distant travel, siblings, and neighbors - when retrograde causes a little havoc in those areas. At the same time, it brings things from the past back for us to review to help us refine our direction.

November brings us ever closer to a January 12, 2020, Pluto/Saturn conjunction, hard work (Saturn & the earth sign of Capricorn ), leading to major transformation (Pluto). This conjunction hasn’t happened in almost 38 years. All of the Scorpionic activity gives us the opportunity to put an end to the darkness in our lives and allow a cosmic planting of new light seeds into our unconscious that promise to illuminate the world by spring.

A consistent yoga practice with the practice of Patañjali’s Yoga Sutra 1.36, Visoka va jyotismati (Vee-SHO-kah-VA Joe-TISH-ma-TEA) can help. Mr. Iyengar translates this sutra as one of the ways Patañjali offers to manage our thoughts, “Or, inner stability is gained by contemplating a luminous sorrowless, effulgent light.” It’s nice to know, that no matter how dark things may appear, if we focus on the flame of a candle or hold a luminous light in our mind’s eye, we can bring forth the light of our soul.

Namaste.

By Rhonda Geraci