Conversation Guruji-2

Part 2 cont…

Question: What kind of art is yoga? Music or dance or drama is emotional – how does yoga qualify as an art? 

Guruji looks thoughtful, but is never at a loss for words.

Answer: Though yoga has a scientific base, when it is put into practice, all of one's skill is needed. The "Chitta-vrtti-nirodha" is very subtle. It has to be dealt with in a subtle manner - it has to be revealed, the inner through the outer. Each Asana is a delicate balance, a harmony between the inner and outer – the mind and the body. Though it begins with a physical vehicle - the body, it is taken to the level of the soul creatively, here, there is sublimation, the gross emotions like anger, frustration, despair are all sublimated. One goes beyond mere feelings/emotions. The "Ananda" expressed and experienced is a fine state or aesthetic state. 

Question: One remembers the ease of certain asanas the way one responds to the effect, sensually more than spiritually. This is not the goal but can this experience have a finer moral/ethical state?

Thoughtfully Guruji answers.

Answer: When you do a certain asana with ease, it is more often than not a reflex action. But there is not mediation in the pose. It is static. Life is forever a movement - continually evolving. The movement or the dynamics of the asana can reach perfect state only in a subtle state of "ananda", repose/bliss. The effort is to penetrate the"panchakosha" (five sheaths) and arrive at the core. That is the goal - the meditative pose - that can hold. 

A merely sensual pose can be very easily disturbed. Also when there is perfect coordination, there is a reflective attitude – you understand your body, that pose is perfect - not merely sensual.

Question: Guruji, when one surrenders to your teaching or reads your work, one realizes that you have developed a unique vocabulary to express yourself. It is neither analytic/scientific or highly metaphysical. Is this your strategy or -

Answer: Years of observation in grasping and understanding the modes, moods and reactions of my pupils towards my teaching, I developed my own special language, vocabulary, and methods of expressing the words to attract attention towards the instant needs of yogic practices demanding moment by moment. Ideas and phrases began to flow on their own to fit into the mental calibre of the students according to their growth of intelligence in their physical, moral, ethical, mental or spiritual spheres.

It is the language speaking... The soul-speaking to the soul. I do not think that is a strategy. As I move, talk, teach in a natural way, I may say, that it is nothing but a human language, and no diplomacy, policies, or brainwashing are involved in teaching.

Question: Guruji, how must a good teacher be? 

The question floats – hangs in the air. The answer will keep coming like the light bouncing off our great hall. Guruji's voice booms back with depth, wisdom and pure clarity.

Answer: A casual (gross) mistake is a real mistake. Remember that a good teacher is one who puts his finger correctly on a mistake – growth or subtle. My senior pupils wonder why I am so particular even with beginners – they shouldn't. It is not that they cannot "take" the subtle points, but that they realize that these too matter, the idea is to penetrate from the outer to the inner, from the periphery of the body, the known to the inner, the unknown. At every level, there must be a yogic journey and this way of seeing the means rather than the effect is the yogic journey. 

When my students try to imitate me, it is a sort of superficial compliment as long as they too have evolved through various stages of Yoga-tapas. They will have the mannerisms, naturally. 

A good teacher creates his own authority, his own style, draws attention to his teaching. A good teacher must have the clarity that comes with confidence, the confidence of a soul dipped in the art of yoga. 

A good teacher understands the capacity of his disciples, and at what level he can absorb. Ripeness of intelligence is needed, but like the body, even the mind has to be "cured". I firmly believe that the cells of the body have their own "smriti", "a memory" which is pure and even more reliable than that of the mind. 

Teaching must be done at all levels – primary and advanced. Teaching "kindergarten" in yoga is very difficult! 

Sincerity of a teacher depends on this teaching life. My span of Yoga-life covers many years of experience, with several hours of yogic practice and yogic thought in a day. Perhaps in that sense, I am older than many Yogis who are elder too...

Guruji stops speaking. His brow furrows till his eyes look into the distance, he explicates on the 'Guru- Shishya' relationship at length. 

Ideally the Guru- Shishya is the "bimbapratibimba" the image and the mirror which endlessly reflect each other. There is complete parity between them. This endless reflecting is not a "multiplicity" that can shatter in an instant, but something perfectly steady, an eternal shining. What is reflected is the "buddhi."

A teacher does not stop teaching. The student goes through various stages. They imbibes a teaching which is experienced directly – objectively. As he progresses, this is internalized according to his own "prakriti." It then becomes a subjective  knowledge and yet teaching is a "darshana" - a reflection of the Guru's own art. 

The concept of "dharma-megha" can be breathed into any asana, the consciousness should always be like that of a full moon which shakes darkness and obscurity. It has to retain the stage of enlightenment like the never-fading son. This is "Kaivalya" - freedom for entanglement. 

Question: How can this subtlety be taught to everyone? 

Answer: There are two types of students - the average and the intense. A teacher must distinguish between these in order to teach accordingly. The physical and physiological adjustments in asanas have to run parallel to the physiological sheath within. For example, when a person is doing a "standing" pose against a straight wall, or a straight pose against a standing wall, he has to see that he is parallel to the wall, or vice versa.

When a student reacts even before a teacher has finished teaching, he must be chided because he is either egotistic or confused. The body, the teacher must realise, is the (photo) frame of the soul, the balance has to come from within. Just as a river flows within the banks, consciousness has to be made to flow within the parameters of the body. Chitta is 'pradhana' – primary, always. Only when a teacher understands this, can he release his pupil into creativity. Creativity lies in perceiving this inner balance. 

Question: What expectations have remained unfulfilled? 

Guruji chides me for the word "expectation." 

Answer: The word brings worries and anxieties that I do not have. 

Question: How do you see the future of Yoga? 

Answer: My friend, Yoga is as old as civilization itself – once it was pure and uncontaminated. But since men will take from the great repository of wisdom according to their natures, it may be tainted... depends on us. Our myths taught us the co-existence of good and evil, pain and happiness. It is how to experience them and in what measure that decides which will dominate our lives. But once a "sadhaka" has had a fragrance of pure "ananda" he will hanker after it - become a seeker of the divine. There will be upheavals, but no void or barrenness. Just as everything in nature, on earth lies dormant for the rain, light, or grain of sand to rejuvenate, create a pearl, so too there is a time for everything. 

As you all know, I see the future of yoga to be very bright. The credit for this goes to you all, for the simple reason that you have formed the Light on Yoga Research Trust. This is now getting generous public support by way of advertisements and donations. This has given me great hope that the beneficial effect of the work which I started 55 years ago seems to be bestowed permanently on the future generation. If not for this hope and confidence, I would tend to be pessimistic, even though I am not a born pessimist. While you generously credit me for starting the Trust, I feel that the effects and continued support have ensured its sustenance and growth. With the Trust, the great yogic switch has been turned ON by you all. I would like to express my gratitude to you, though you are my pupils.

The brightness of Yoga is going to enlighten further not only through the Trust members, but also through all my countless pupils all over the globe. We could collect data through them and go in for new methods and research to study the actual changes taking place, while in the process of doing rather than the evaluation of results. "Before and after." The present-day Yogis are only doing the conditioning of the pressures and stresses,  "before and after." Our Trust should not commit this mistake, but study the changes in the nervous and circulatory systems and the changes in the brain while the structural adjustments are made in the body. If this is presented in a scientific manner through the Light on Yoga Research Trust,  I am certain that Yoga is going to take a permanent place in the scientific world as a discipline of great utilitarian value to the human race. 

Question: What are the concrete steps that need to be taken to preserve the pure form of yoga? 

Answer: As an individual, without help and support from anyone, I had built up this art, and made different types of people taste and enjoy the fruits of this art. It would surprise you to know that I have taught Yoga to people in all walks of life: sweepers to postman, policemen to administrators, musicians, dancers, writers, lawyers, doctors, sportsmen and philosophers. Craftsman like carpenters and others have also been my pupils. In fact, I have taken this art to people in all trades and professions all around the world. 

I consider that my greatest achievement has been the formation of the Light on Yoga Research Trust. This Trust must provide stipends to genuine students interested in learning, teaching, and propagating Yoga. If after a good training, these students could be absorbed as Yoga teachers and sent to villages to teach and spread this art, I am sure that Yoga would have concrete bearing not only on the urban intellectuals but also in a large number of innocent rural groups. The villages will then become beautiful health resorts. 

Governments all over the world are spending several millions for research on diseases and drugs to make unhealthy people healthy. But alas! No Government has woken up to the need to keep healthy people healthy. Hence I consider that this Trust has a tremendously challenging responsibility to offer that means not only for the unhealthy to turn healthy, but also for the healthy ones to become healthier. I would be more than gratified if all of you continue your support to the Trust to fulfill the dream of mind. I will consider this a concrete step for a great leap forward.

Yoga is like music.

The rhythm of the body, the melody of the mind

and the harmony of the soul,

create the symphony of life.

B.K.S. IYENGAR

Excerpt from 70 Glorious Years of Yogacharya B.K.S.Iyengar (commemorative volume)