We had a lovely day of rest at The Marriott Hotel swimming pool for Sunday which was surprisingly quiet, perhaps everyone assuming as we did that it would be super-busy. I made the duff decision to skip my practice (even Guruji had Sundays off right?) so woke up this morning feeling as dull as dishwater, further compounded by the fact that there was no water in the apartment this morning for a shower. And so I found myself in front of a two-hour discourse with Prashant feeling a bit meh!
There was a buzz of excitement in the hall at PYC Deccan Gymkhana, the chosen venue for this event - plenty of light and fresh air flow and enough space for the 250 plus students that have gathered from around the globe for this celebratory event. The atmosphere was light and jovial. The organisation for this event has been impressively well thought through and executed. After Abhi performed the Puja we found that our first session was to be with Prashantji.
The only person qualified to explain what Prashantji wants to convey is of course Prashantji! So it would be folly for me to try. Here though are a few pieces of 'undigested bird seed' seen through my very obviously limited lens. Beware of gathering pieces of information - infomatics (such as well ....this!) gathering information like a bird pecking seed. Guruji used to say NOT to go back and try and teach what he was teaching in the intensives – for if you try and teach what has not yet been digested and assimilated into your own practice, what is this that you are giving your students? What is undigested food? Yes, it is vomit!
I found myself amusing myself by closely watching for the reactions of the professional camera men as we traversed terrain as diverse as the anus having inhalative potential during exhalation in pranayama to the blunderous error of calling asanas a posture. Asanas are a seat. Exploring breath from each seat. In AMVirasana AMSvansana solely for the breath. Udhva Hastasana. Trikonasana (with the back body, with the hips and pelvis with ….) Sirsasana, Brick Setubandha.
He does not call himself our teacher as our teacher resides inside of us – the best he can do is to try and provide a hotline to our own true teacher. We try to make photogenic postures, but what about breathogenic or mindogenic postures?
One point of note for me when we were exploring Trikonasana, was that my habit is to often focus on the spine to invigorate the dull energy in my back body (Yes I know! - Habit is a disease!) but when I did it concentrating solely on the correct actions of the hips and pelvis my pose was much more cohesive as a whole entity and I was able to observe from a point of very calm stability. I existed much more happily in this Trikonasana than the one we did with the focus entirely on the back body.
We had a 4 hour break inbetween sessions, so I took the opportunity to head back to the apartment for a quiet practice session of my own daily sequence given in 2014 by Guruji and still making all the difference for me in terms of quality of life. A hot shower and bowl of fruit and lime juice later and I returned back to the venue feeling like a whole new human ready for an uplifting 2-hour asana session with Abhi. She started by trying to find out what students really wanted out of their trip to Pune. A show of hands revealed that there were a large percentage of people attending who were visiting Pune for the very first time and Abhi has decided to split the large group to allow those who have never received a class at the institute to have this experience while they are here. This considerate thought got a round of applause. After we had completed the asana session we received the unexpected gift of some delicious hot indian snacks and hot chai or coffee.
6th January 2025 – Day 1 – Session 2 – Abhijata
AMSvanasana jump or step to Uttanasana
AMSvanasana Lift the heels and LIFT the whole pose UP! so it’s LIGHT! And then extend the heels back down WITHOUT losing the height – Uttanasana – hit the inner legs out and descend the waist corners down.
Padangusthasana – encircling the big toes and extending forwards and then drawing downwards.
Prasarita Padottanasana – Head on something soft, even if your head can touch the floor, put the blanket there so the head is supported. This is helpful to stay quietly to help recover from the jet lag etc.
Parsvottanasana x 2 each side extending down over the leg
Padangusthasana – Encircling the big toes and lengthening forwards from the sacrum – there can be no coiling without there first being length of the front body – create the length and then coil the spine in. Don’t waste to much energy pulling the eyes up. Then draw downwards holding the big toes to lengthen the waist corners downwards.
AMSvanasana – Head supported, filling the gap between the head and the floor and then once the head is resting, LIFT the outer corners of the waist, outer hips UP! the whole pose has to lift and extend away from the fixed point of the head resting.
Ardha Chandrasana
Ardha Chandrasana – LIFT the whole bottom chest up! Demo here to show how our bottom chest tends to roll slightly back and hang towards the floor. It’s not just the rotation that has to improve the whole chest has to lift straight up towards the ceiling. Sometimes you see a pregnant women holding the weight of her bump with her hands – as if you were able to take your hands to the lower rib cage and lift the whole thing up.
Ardha Chandrasana – Take the hand in line with the centre foot rather than in line with the little toe or further back behind the foot as we more commonly do to make the balance easier. This position of the hand will require more focus to balance.
Ardha Chandrasana – Hand in line with the foot AND on tips of finger nails rather than cupped hand.
Ardha Chandrasana – Standing foot on brick and if possible hand in line with the foot and on the tips of the fingernails rather than on cupped fingers as we normally do.
Vrksasana – Standing on brick
Vira 3 – Standing on brick
If you weren’t able to balance, don’t worry! In theory the pose is the same as standing on the floor, but it enhances the mental component.
Baddha Konasana – Press the hands down to lift the seat up and descend the thighs further down x 3
Upavistha Konasana – Lift each leg individually and take it further back. This is hard to do and she showed holding the big toe to pick the leg up and take it further back. Then Parsva Upavistha Konasana - suck the back body in and lift the chest.
Bharadvajasana 1 – Coil the armpit chest from the back to the front like you do for pranayama and suck the back body IN! Turning to the right side and then rolling the back shoulder back x 6 like Paschima Namaskarasana. Then walk the hand further back and reach to hold the heel.
AM Swastikasana
AM Padmasana bend forwards (or repeat Swastikasana forwards)
Variation of Marichyasana 2 – 1 leg in Marichyasana and the other in Baddha Konasana (as opposed to classical pose with this leg in padmasana) Extending over the Baddha Konasana leg and if possible wrapping around the shin and clasping the hands as per Marichyasana.
Baddha Konasana – Holding around the feet and pressing the thighs DOWN to lift and coil the trunk so the chest rolls back to face the ceiling. The thighs need to be able to press the ground to generate the lift, so if your thighs don’t reach the floor 1) Raise your seat if needed to get the knees and inner groins in line with each other as this action can’t happened when the knees are higher than the groins 2) Fill any gap between the thighs and the floor so that you have something to press into to generate the LIFT!
Janu Sirsasana folding the(right) leg from Upavista Konasana so that you were slightly angular 1) Adho Mukha extending straight forwards into the gap between the 2 legs 2) Moving slowly across to extend over the straight leg, using exhalations to roll the right rib down and move the ribcage from the right to the left 3) Placing a brick out side the left calf to rest the head on 4) Rotating the trunk and head still further so that you are resting your right ear on the brick.
Paschimottanasana 3 minutes, head down and supported if you wish. She linked this back to Prashant’s teaching from this morning referring to the ‘Mind Desa’ where the head supported enables us to stay with quiet mind and softer breathing.
Paschimottanasana CCB holding the sides of the foot and lifting the trunk up, cutting the back rib in.
AMVirasana – You decide whether to do the classical posture with the feet apart and the knees together or the (easier) version with knees apart and big toes together – or somewhere between the two postures which is manageable for you.
Supta Padangusthasana 1 – 1) Bring the movement x 6 drawing leg closer 2) Bring the skill - extending from the buttock bone to the heel 3) Bring the action - press the root of the thigh to the buttock bone 4) Lift the heel of the bottom leg off the floor and stretch from the root of the thigh to the heel to lengthen that leg away. Maintain that length as you take the heel back down to the floor.
Supta Padangusthasana 2 – Keeping leg at a right angle to the hip, not drawing it higher towards the shoulder. 1) Extend from buttock bone to the heel 2) Press from root of thigh towards the buttock bone 3) Open, animate the sole of the foot – not to make your foot look pretty, but because if the sole of the foot is dull the leg bends – check and see.
Moving towards Supta Padangusthasana 4 – Supine with 1 leg bent, foot flat on the floor and the other leg bent with a) The foot resting just above the knee (stay here for hip and knee problems) b) Either holding the big toe or reaching from underneath through the gap and wrapping whole arm around to draw the leg closer to the trunk where the shin was parallel to the ceiling (Sowing the seeds of padmasana). c) Holding the big toe, lifting the head up and taking the arms around the back of the head for the full pose.
Option for Supta Baddha Konasana or Supta Matsyasana to observe how the hip rotation has improved the pose.
Dwi Pada Viparita Dandasana – suggested set up was the 2 long foam pieces with the 2 blankets folded on top to create a decent height to get the lift and openness of the chest. Coiling the dorsal over the edge and resting on the crown of the head (not back of the head as per setubandha which was coming next). She cautioned us not to shorten the neck by trying to coil the head in as much as possible towards the support.
Setubandha – Sliding further over so that the shoulders reached the floor, resting on the back skull, rolled blanket if required for the neck.
Savasana – If your back would benefit, there was the option of Supta Swastikasana with the crossed legs raised on the foams or just straight Savasana as per preference.
Appreciate your kindness Tamara, stay blessed!
Thank you for these precious notes!