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Spring 1995
NAMASTE,
I’m writing this newsletter from my room at the Hotel Chetak in Pune, India. It’s a small hotel on a busy street filled with the noise of voices and vehicles. There is a rule that all vehicles in India are required to sound their horns every two minutes whether needed or not, or so it seems. I never knew there were so many kinds of horns: ones that beep, ones that buzz, ones that honk, even ones that play Beethoven. I’m not kidding.
The Chetak is my usual hangout when I come here because it’s convenient to the Yoga Institute, only a ten minute walk, and the staff is warm and friendly. And since many of the yoga students take rooms here, the lounge (I use that word very liberally) is a meeting place for morning and afternoon tea or coffee, note taking session after classes, and various discussions ranging from yoga geopolitics to technical and philosophical subtleties of the practice.
My purpose in coming here is, as it usually is, to study with my teacher, B.K.S. Iyengar. I’m particularly excited about this intensive course because the focus is on pranayama. In my own practice, as much as I enjoy and benefit from doing the asanas (postures) I cherish my pranayama practice even more. Even on days when I miss or take a break from asana practice, I almost always find some time for pranayama.
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Pranayama is ostensibly about breathing and the use of various techniques to work with the breath. The flow of the breath is a prime indicator of the state of health of mind and body, and creating a healthy flow of breath is a powerful tool for creating optimal mental and physical health.
More importantly pranayama is concerned with ayama, which means to observe, control, release, direct and feel the flow of prana, which is energy or life force, in the body. As such, it is directly related to the movement of awareness and intelligence and reveals and affects the quality of our consciousness in profound and subtle ways. In the Yoga Sutras, Patanjali posits that from the practice of pranayama, our internal light is revealed, and the mind becomes fit to begin meditation (II.52, 53) Mr. Iyengar goes so far as to say that on one level pranayama is meditation.
As of this writing, we’ve just finished the intensive, and it’s all still much too raw, too undigested to really speak about. I can say, however, that I feel extremely fortunate, privileged, actually, to be in a position to receive the insights of the decades of intense practice that Mr. Iyengar has undertaken and has shared with us. It’s been overwhelming at times and I know that much of what I’ve heard and tried to do will have to steep in the pot of patient practice for years. As Mr. Iyengar has often said you can use will power in the asanas; with the breath you must listen and wait for permission. So, in many ways, the focus on pranayama has made this a different kind of intensive, a much more internal experience.
Another way in which this trip has been different is that I’ve seen other parts of India than I usually see. Always before when I’ve come, I’ve flown into Bombay, taken a car, plane or train to Pune, and when the course was over, left immediately for Bombay and then home.
This time those of us who were attending the pranayama intensive were required to attend an International Yoga Conference that Mr. Iyengar was leading earlier in the month. The week long conference was held in Rishikesh, a small town nestled on the banks of the Ganges River, or the Ganga, as it is called here, in one of India’s northernmost states, Uttar Pradesh.
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Instead of flying into Bombay, since transportation to Rishikesh had already been arranged from New Delhi as part of the conference, we flew into New Delhi. Arriving in India via New Delhi is very different from arriving in Bombay. Riding from the airport to the hotel, we passed many new buildings situated on wide, tree-lined boulevards. The air pollution is still bad, but nothing compared to the putrid air of Bombay, where to get into town, you weave your way through endless slums and decaying buildings. We arrived early enough to spend a couple of days in New Delhi to get over our jet lag and do a little sightseeing before boarding the bus for the seven hour ride to Rishikesh.
One of the reasons Rishikesh was selected as a site is that it is one of India’s holiest cities. Many temples, shrines, and ashrams line the Ganga, India’s most sacred river, so Rishikesh is an auspicious place to hold a yoga conference.
Another trip we took was to Devprayag, which is situated at the confluence of two rivers which join to form the Ganga. It is another holy spot, and pilgrims come from far and wide to dip themselves in the river. To fully immerse oneself three times in the Ganga while praying for forgiveness is said to wash away all one’s past sins. Most of couldn’t resist such an opportunity, and we plunged ourselves in the icy water, whose source lay far up in the Himalayas. What a relief to be free from sin!
Not only was the river cold, the nights in Rishikesh were also quite chilly. This made our daily 7:00 am asana class, which was held in a huge, unheated tent by the river, even more challenging than usual. But we all survived the week, more or less.
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After the formal conference ended some of the participants went with Mr. Iyengar further up into the mountains to the resort town of Mussor; this trip was a last minute addition to the schedule. Since a number of us had already made other plans for the week between the conference and the intensive, we bussed back to New Delhi instead.
We had arranged to take a tour that included Jaipur and Agra before traveling from Delhi to Pune. What a delightful adventure! We saw camel caravans in Rajasthan and palaces of incredible opulence in Agra and Jaipur. We survived an elephant ride to the Red Fort and strolled through the abandoned city of Fatepur-Sikri. We really did and saw too much to describe in the limited space of this newsletter, but I will elaborate on the entire trip at the April 2 discussion group. I also hope to have some slides, so if you’re interested in hearing more, please come then.
I can’t resist mentioning the highlight of the tour, though: a visit to the Taj Mahal in Agra.
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We went in the early afternoon on the last day of the tour, and in our first view of the palace, we were stunned by it incredible beauty and elegant symmetry. A scheduling snafu (and a lousy tour guide) made it necessary that this visit be brief, but we returned later in the afternoon, around 4:30, and stayed until closing time at seven. As the sun set, and the moon two days shy of full, rose in the gathering dusk, a gentle mist rolled in, wrapping the grounds in a silver gray shroud. The palace seemed to float in space, aglow in the pearly luminescence of the lunar light. It was a breathtaking sight.
Of the many beautiful and exotic treasures India has to offer, the one I had always most wanted to see was the Taj. But the press of time and the demands – logistical, financial, and psychological – of being in India had always whisked me in and out as quickly as possible.
Mr. Iyengar’s requirement that we attend Rishikesh (which frankly I wouldn’t have otherwise done) in order to attend the pranayama intensive (which I wouldn’t have missed for anything) knocked me out of my usual routine.
The free week between the conference and the intensive, which I had initially grumbled about as unnecessarily time consuming, allowed space for me to realize a long delayed dream.
Wouldn’t you know it. Once again, in more ways than one, Mr. Iyengar has led me to places that I might never otherwise have gone. And that when you get down to it is why I return time after time, to break past the lines I draw around myself and glimpse with eyes afresh what may be hidden beyond the next veil.
Have a beautiful spring. Hope to see you at the discussion.
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