Yoga Journal USA - July-August 2017

92

august 2017

yogajournal.com

MASTER CLASS

practice well

My first experience with yoga was in

my mother’s womb. For seven years she

had been unable to conceive, then she

found yoga. She and my father studied

in India, directly with B.K.S. Iyengar.

Thanks to yoga, I was born. When

I was very young, I would watch them

take class. Iyengar wouldn’t allow chil-

dren to participate until they reached

age seven. At that age, the mind con-

nects with the body, he said.

While my memory of my first class

(back in 1 966) is a blur, I have a lifetime

of memories with Iyengar. He was a

great taskmaster. As the most famous

yoga teacher in the world, he had no

one to answer to but himself. I was his

youngest student ever, and he wanted to

be sure I would be an excellent practitio-

ner. I became one of his star students

and protégés. He pushed me very hard,

which was both good and bad. Good

because it taught me immense disci-

pline, and bad because I incurred many

injuries. At seven, when I first started

practicing, he would sit on my back

for 1 o minutes in Paschimottanasana

(Seated Forward Bend) while I cried

because it was so painful. But in India,

you don’t say “no” to your teacher; there

is a great respect for them, so I bore all

the pain. The benefit of enduring pain

was developing strength of character—

today, I can handle difficult life situa-

tions with aplomb.

I stuck with the practice. When I was

about 1 5 years old, school officials asked

me to teach yoga to my peers. In keeping

with tradition, the student must respect-

fully ask permission from his teacher.

So, I asked Guruji (at that time we called

him Iyengar Uncle), “May I teach?” He

said with a smile, “Yes, go teach.” When

I started, I realized that if I was going to

teach yoga, I had to be serious about

mastering it in my own body.

My practice intensified. In 1 975, the

Iyengar students of Bombay, where

we lived, helped build Guruji’s famous

institute in the nearby city of Pune. He

invited me to spend time with him there.

Sometimes we practiced eight hours

a day: from 7:oo a.m. to noon, plus two

more hours in the afternoon. The later

practice was comprised of only two

poses: Salamba Sirsasana (Supported

Headstand) and Salamba Sarvangasana

(Supported Shoulderstand). We’d hold

Sirsasana for 45 minutes and Sarvangas-

ana for an hour and a half, with varia-

tions. It was very intense so it was

usually only Guruji and me, alone, face

to face. Through my practice I developed

the tenacity to hold on, to develop a ner-

vous system with a buffer.

I continued working with Iyengar

for more than 3o years. I chaired com-

mittees in the Iyengar Yoga National

Association of the United States, but

the politics were not appealing to me,

so I stepped down and began to focus

on other aspects of yoga. My family

had been introduced to the Indian po et,

yogi, philosopher, and spiritual giant

Sri Aurobindo when I was about 1 o years

old. Later in life, my studies with Savitri

(a meditation master in her own right)

and my research on naturopathic heal-

ing and lifestyle changes led me to

deeply embrace the yoga of Sri

Aurobindo. Due to illnesses in my fam-

ily, I also began studying nutrition,

which was not a part of the Iyengar sys-

tem. Eventually Savitri and I developed

Purna Yoga, which strives to encompass

the vastness of Sri Aurobindo’s vision.

There are many unique things about

Purna Yoga. I developed asana practices

based on what our bodies need—specifi-

cally for hips, lower back, shoulders,

and upper back—with sequences for

treating specific conditions. A student

can do a single sequence or link them

together to create a complete class.

The asana are both diagnostic tools and

remedies for physical and mental prob-

lems. Purna Yoga also uses ancient

sequences, like classical Surya Namaskar

(Sun Salutation), but adds an alignment

focus for safety. Because I had injured

myself so many times in Iyengar Yoga,

I set out to make the safest yoga practice

possible. This do esn’t mean that no one

ever gets injuries in Purna Yoga; rather

there is careful emphasis on physiology

and how the body works. Purna Yoga is

really deep and careful work. That’s why

we have 2oo-, 5oo-, 2,ooo-, and 4,ooo-

hour teacher trainings.

Another unique aspect of this practice

is the use of Heartfull Meditation,

which was gifted to Savitri from great

yoga and meditation masters. Savitri is

a living master of meditation, and her

techniques teach students how to bring

light and love into their bodies and their

lives. Purna Yoga also includes extensive

education in ancient and modern nutri-

tion and lifestyle. We are teaching stu-

dents how to make lifestyle choices in

order to be healthy. All things in life

matter, not just practicing stretches on

the mat. Your life off the mat is much

“The asana open up our bodies, making us strong

and vibrant and prepared to receive life. But yoga is

about how we use that strength and vitality.”