Greetings and Namaskar again! Geeta taught today and she is as inspiring as ever. She, as Prashant also did, discussed how they learned yoga. They watched their Father, they practiced, AND they listened to what he said and also listed to what he was trying to convey.
In those days, there were no books. Guruji hadn’t written them yet! And Geeta became interested in the Yoga Sutras, so she read, if I heard correctly, lectures that had been given on the Sutras. What inspired her most were Yoga Sutras II.1-2:
II.1 tapah svadhyaya ishvara-pranidhana kriya-yogah
Yoga in the form of action (kriya yoga) has three parts:
1) burning effort to purify the body, mind, senses – tapas
2) self-study in the context of teachings (svadhyaya), and
3) devotion and letting go; ishvara pranidhana. This Kriya Yoga is the yoga of action and it begins with the body and asana.
II.2 samadhi bhavana arthah klesha tanu karanarthah cha
That Yoga of action (kriya yoga) is practiced to bring about samadhi and to minimize the colored thought patterns (kleshas).
Geeta discussed Samadhi, and in the most basic and thoughtful terms says it’s finding equilibrium – a balanced state of mind.
And it’s the kleshas! The kleshas which mush be brought under control. I have studied and written about the kleshas. There are five kleshas –colorings of the mind.
Avidya, or ignorance about the true nature of things. All suffering stems from avidya.
Asmita, I-ness, individuality, or egoism (asmita),
Raga, attachment in the material world, to mental impressions or objects,
Dvesha, aversion to thought patterns or objects
Abinivesha, love of these as being life itself, as well as fear of their loss as being death.
And so, she talked a lot about Abinivesha, fear. Fear in our practice, in our minds and bodies. This came up later in Sirsasana, when she said students put their legs forward and buttocks out, which show fear. Fear of falling over. Fear. I do see that in many of your Sirsasanas.
We did a variety of standing poses, working on the back leg hip; spreading our consciousness to the left and ride side, to spread awareness.
She is strong in her words and very witty.
Besides the wonderful morning of class with Geeta, I met up with an long time friend. I had stayed in the early days in a flat next to the Institute, owned by a long time Pune family. Vinod, the owner, has been a good friend. He came and we went into town. As I have said, traffic is bad and parking is even more difficult. He wanted to go to a rooftop restaurant, but I said that wouldn’t work with the pollution. He says, Indians know their lives might be short with the circumstances they live, but they live life to the fullest while here on Earth.
So, we started at was in essence a brew pub! They were playing Dire Straits and Led Zeppelin. How amusing to be among locals with such an American essence in this restaurant. We then went to dinner and had some wonderful ‘veg’ food.
Again, more later!
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