The coconut seller outside the Institute
Bit of a pants day. Went to bed too late and then had robust hypo in the middle of the night. Yesterday’s pancreas squeezing activities still making their mark. Struggled out of bed for Prasant’s class and pre-dawn walk through the park.
I’ll pick out a few key points from the class: “Postures consume energy, Asanas generate energy” “Doing to the maximum is not Yog, Doing very little is Yog”. We have to learn the different ways of working with the breath, the bandhas and kriyas, breath retention so that we become like a nuclear reactor and can generate energy.
We again worked on a few key backbends and twists. In Bharadvajasana 1 we had to first establish a breath pattern before turning. Then as we turned we had to take great care not to disturb the pattern we had created i.e we made the breath the absolute priority. Prashant told us that doing this way meant that women remain women “Women are becoming men and men are becoming extra men!”
After class went to the upstairs studio to observe Sushma’s Senior Citizen’s class. It was very busy today and again had the feeling of watching someone very skilled at their job. Great learning.
Bust of Ramamani, Iyengar’s Beloved Late Wife
Got home and collapsed into bed for a couple of hours sleep. Managed a bit of practice before an evening walk around Pune to gather bits and pieces that we need. Have made the decision not to do any more Prasant classes on this trip. My practice needs to evolve further before I can really get much out of the classes – a bandha or a kriya is mentioned in his very quick dialogue and you would have to be so on the ball to pick it up, know what it was, interpret it and put it into action before he has moved on to the next thing.No instruction is given. At this stage in my practice I am getting so much more out of the other classes – each one is precious and I don’t want to waste a minute! I am also a little puzzled as to how his method of working and Guruji’s can co-exist in the same Institute – he is very scathing about classes where you are given precise physical instructions where he feels the priority of uniting mind, body, breath is lost. It is one of the Great Pune Mysteries along with Why does the park close right in the middle of the day for 4 hours?
Am researching a little weekend trip down to Goa for the weekend of the 25th when the Institute is closed for the weekend. Thought I might try the Blue Lagoon beach resort. Will get the sleeper train down on Friday, a bargain at 260 rupees and fly back up in time for class on Monday 🙂 Any Pune blog-readers welcome to join me!
The Sweetie Shop!
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