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Published: November 22nd 2008
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Here’s a basic introduction to the practical side of the physical yoga practice. I have been practicing Ashtanga Yoga, in the style of Sri K. Pattabhi Jois (KPJ), for about six years, starting while I lived in Austin. The point of coming here to Mysore, and to this neighborhood in particular (as opposed to any of the myriad places to practice yoga in India or the world) is to practice at the KPJ Institute.
The Characters: KPJ is generally referred to as the Guru or “Guruji” (
ji is a term of honor, you’ll often hear the great independence movement leader referred to as
“Ghandiji”). KPJ learned this yoga from his Guru a long time ago, practiced for many years, and then taught the Maharaja and at a university, and taught others, who in turn brought this style of yoga to the west. KPJ is in his nineties and does not actively teach anymore. His daughter, Saraswati, learned and practiced for many years, and now works at the Institute (in addition to looking after the extended family home). Sharath is the Saraswati’s son (KPJ’s grandson). He is in him mid-30s and the main instructor at the Institute.
The Place: The
Yoga Shala (school) is not unlike other yoga spaces: front entry room, main studio, “Ladies Room” and “Men’s Room”, pictures on the walls (various important people to the Shala), flowers, lots of windows, and so on. The main studio room is big enough to hold about 70 yoga mats. It has tiled stone floors, which are mostly covered with a couple of layers of big rugs. But it is not uncommon to do some or all of your practice on the hard floor (with your own mat on top of it). The Ladies Room (I assume the Men’s is the same way, but I’ve never been in there) is 2 stories. In addition a couple of toilet rooms and place to stash your stuff (bag, street clothes), there’s floor space to do finishing series (see below), and chanting and instructional classes are held there in the upstairs area.
The Practice: The physical yoga practice (asanas or poses) is a fixed or set routine, which takes about 1.5 hours to get all the way through. While it is a slow practice, it is still a “flow” practice, which means each movement is tied to a breath (e.g., raise arms up
while breathing in, then move into forward fold while exhaling, then lift your head and straighten your back while inhaling, then move back into a plank/pushup position while exhaling, and so on). It is not constant movement - once you “get” into a pose, you hold it for usually 5 breaths. It is a sweaty practice, and it is strenuously vigorous, sort of increasing in difficulty as you proceed through it. It starts with a series of standing poses (triangle, reverse-triangle, and so on), moves into a series of seated poses (various forward folds, twists, etc), then back-bends, and finally the finishing series, which consists of inversions (shoulder-stands, headstands) and resting. This is simplistic, but some context.
The Routine: Each student is assigned a designated time to start practice. Ideally, one practices first thing in the morning, when the air is cleaner and your mind is clearer. The shala opens and the first people start their practice at 4:45am. When we arrived here in Mysore, our designated start time was 8am. As people leave and spots open up, they move you up to an earlier start time. Our start time now is 7:15am. We get there about 15 minutes
early and wait in the front-room, usually watching other students practicing. When a person finishes backbends and goes to the Ladies (or Mens, as appropriate) Room or somewhere else to do finishing series, then they call “next” and you go in and take that spot. The shala is usually pretty steamy by the time we get started, with lots of sweaty bodies having been through already.
You then just do your own practice, moving through the postures on your own, as there is very little (no) interaction from the two instructors (Sharath and Saraswati). I find it sometimes helpful to watch other students while awaiting my start, as it gives me reminders of ways to do poses or not do poses. If you didn’t know the routine when you arrived here, you’d start later in the day (around 9am), and get instruction through the whole thing; you don’t need to be experienced to practice here. When you get to a pose that you really can't do (e.g., if you can't bind your arms in marichiasana D), Sharath or Saraswati may try to help you into it, but then they will generally stop you, and you go into your back
bends, then move somewhere else to do the finishing sequence. And then you go home, and that’s it! The practice is personal, quiet, slow, relaxed, intense, sweaty, meditative; more than anything, it is individual, just your mat, your body, and your head. That’s the beauty and the challenge.
That’s the routine Monday through Thursday. Saturday is a day of rest. On Fridays & Sundays, Sharath and Saraswati (respectively) lead everyone through the series. There are 2 groups of led classes on each of those days, one at 4:45 and one at 6am, depending on your start time (we're still in the 6am group, thankfully). These led practices are more challenging in some ways, because Sharath is counting off the time to hold each posture, and he (purposely) counts very slowly, especially in the particularly difficult poses. It also seems there’s more of something like "peer pressure" in the led classes because everyone is doing the same thing at the same time, and its easier to find yourself comparing your practice to others’.
I believe the concept for the 2 led classes is to help eliminate some bad habits, a bit more instruction, but there's not much instruction, at
least not in the way we're used to from USA (e.g., "remember in this pose to keep your eyes on your open palm", or "keep your knee over your foot"); instruction like that is just not part of the practice here. I have had a few "pointers" from Sharath, for example, when he's helping me get into a pose, or when he was helping someone next to me and told me to move my head over a few inches, or sometimes I see him help someone else, which can be instructive to me. So from this perspective, watching the more advanced practitioners (there are many very advanced practitioners) is invaluable. We come back to a couple of mantras, like "practice, all will come", and "99%!p(MISSING)ractice, 1%!t(MISSING)heory", and "it's not a performance, its your own practice", to keep from measuring against others, but from an instructional perspective, particularly given the limited instruction from the instructors, I find it generally helpful to see others' practice.
Miscellaneous: It costs about $650 for the first month, and about $350 for each additional month after that (the rupee is very weak against the dollar right now, so our tuition is going
down, relatively speaking). The Shala wants us to stay a minimum of a month, and a maximum of 6 months in a 12-month period. I am here for 3 months, which seems to be a good amount of time. The first month, by all accounts, is just getting used to the routine, and getting some physical strength. There are all kinds of people here: lots of people are here on their 2nd, 3rd, 4th trip to Mysore, others are here only a month.
The Shala does not take on the role of assisting students with such practicalities as living arrangements, travel issues, recommended places to eat, extra-curricular activities, etc, though the theory & chanting classes are offered, and there's a poster for a volunteer project. These other things (like where you can buy delicious home-made dark chocolate, or good cooking classes) are learned by word of mouth through the students, and through the internet.
So there’s my lay-person introduction of the physical yoga practice here in Mysore, India.
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