Sankalpa: A Yogic Life of Intent - IYNAUS Convention 2023 - San Diego

Sankalpa

is an intention formed by the heart and mind: a solemn vow, determination, or will.

In practical terms, a sankalpa means a one-pointed resolve to focus both psychologically and philosophically on a specific goal.

A sankalpa is a tool meant to refine the will and to focus and harmonize mind and body.

Invocation of Sage Patañjali

Yogena cittasya padena vacam

Malam sarirasya ca vaidyakena

Yopakarottam pravaram muninam

Patanjalim pranjaliranato’smi

Abahu purusakaram

Sankha cakrasi dharinam

Sahasra sirasam svetam

Pranamami Patanjalim

Hari Hey Om

To the noblest of sages, Patañjali, who gave us yoga for serenity of mind, grammar for purity of speech and medicine for the perfection of the body, I salute.

I salute before Patañjali whose upper body has a human form, whose arms hold a conch, and disc and a sword, who is crowned by a thousand headed cobra. Oh incarnation of Adisesa my humble salutations to thee.

Invocation to Our Guru

Guru Brahma Guru Vishnu

Guru Devo Maheshwara

Guru Sakshat Param Brahma

Tasmai Shri Gurave Namaha

The teacher is the creator, Brahma; He is the preserver, Vishnu; He is also the destroyer, Shiva; And he is the source of the Absolute, I offer all my efforts to that great teacher.

Photo: B.K.S. Iyengar’s hand at IYILA, 2005. Photo by Karen Lee Fisher

Magazine Committee

Chair and Art Director

Linda Nishio

Editor

Christie Hall

Senior Advisor

Eddy Marks

Convention Chair

Kathleen Quinn

Graphic Assistance

Laurie Freed

Copy Editors

Chris Beach, Christie Hall, Pauline

Schloesser, Nadine Sims, Suneel Sundar, Bonnie Szumski

Proofreaders

Chris Beach, Deena Novak, Nadine

Sims, Bonnie Szumski

Photographers

Kelly Fogel, James Greene, Simon

Joannou, Sameer Karmarkar, Anna

Marchlewska, Lindsay Monal, Jack

Murray, Julia Pedersen, Todd Semo, Shael Sharma, Ross Smith

Convention Committees

Convention Senior Chair

Kathleen Quinn

Convention Co-Chairs

SriVarada Kota, Nina Paloma

IYNAUS Events Chair

Tay Bulanda

Audio Visual: SriVarada Kota

Banners/Signage: Linda Nishio

Graphic Design: Rohit Kulkarni, Nicole

Leong, Sabrina Schmidt

Magazine: Christie Hall, Eddy Marks, Linda Nishio

Operations/Logistics: SriVarada Kota, Nina Paloma, Kathleen Quinn

Props: Deanna Cramer

Prop Kits: Deanna Cramer

Social Media/Marketing: Adela Blevins, Skyler Christensen, Evelyn DeLiso, Sabrina Schmidt, Mariana Scotti

Sponsorship: Adela Blevins, Evelyn

DeLiso, Rachel Mullane, Christine

Pfeifer, Mariana Scotti

T-Shirts: Krystle Barnes

Volunteers: Carolyn Belko, Kitty Franklin

Front and back covers: Abhijata Iyengar teaching at the 2019 IYNAUS National Convention, Dallas, Texas. Photo: courtesy of IYNAUS archives.

Dear Yoga Practitioners,

A lot has happened for all of us since the Dallas convention four years ago. I pray that your practice has been an abiding source of connection to contentment (santosha), peace (shanti) and even joy (sukha)!

The theme chosen for this convention is Sankalpa: Yogic Life of Intent.

As practitioners we set time aside every day for spiritual growth and development through practice (tapas), quiet self-reflection (svadhyaya) and association with the force that pervades all living beings (Isvara pranidhana). This sacred commitment is sankalpa

To be wholehearted and steadfast in this Yogic approach to life requires faith (sraddha), focused energy (virya) and enthusiasm (utsaha).

As Krishna teaches in The Bhagavad Gita: “This is the path of Yoga. Follow it with determination and sustained enthusiasm (VI.23).”

– translation, Eknath Easwaran

Abhijata’s unwavering devotion to Guruji, Geetaji, Prashantji, to RIMYI, to her family and to the worldwide Iyengar Yoga community to which IYNAUS belongs is a shining example of sankalpa and Yoga.

We are fortunate to have her resolute and agile leadership and service.

May the grace of the Guru and the Guru continue to bless and protect her and guide our actions, words and thoughts.

Yours in service and in Yoga, Gloria Goldberg President, IYNAUS

Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and Justice in Iyengar Yoga

By Megan Bowles

The Yoga Equity Committee is responsible for increasing diversity, equity, and inclusion in Iyengar Yoga in the United States. Though yoga is meant for everyone, not everyone in the U.S. has been reached by Iyengar Yoga. This means that there is an opportunity for growth; both outer growth, as in numbers of practitioners, and inner growth, as in reducing barriers to intelligence and moving closer to personal integration.

Diversity, cont. on page 51

Welcome Prashantji & Abhijata

The Iyengar Yoga Association of California ¬– Southern Region board of directors is humbled and grateful for the opportunity to be hosts for the IYNAUS Convention 2023, (IC23).

There are so many people I want to thank!

l Sincere thanks to our volunteers, the very heart of IC23, the hundreds in our Iyengar yoga community and their families who have given so generously and freely of their time and expertise.

l I am so grateful to San Diego senior teachers: Gloria Goldberg, Mary Obendorfer, Carolyn Belko, Eddy Marks, and Roger Cole, whose encouragement got this project through the early days of the pandemic.

l My thanks to the members of IYNAUS Convention 2019 – Randy Just, Gretchen House, Michelle Pontrelli, and Susanne Bulington – for their invaluable insight.

l Thanks to Gwen Edelman of HelmsBriscoe for being our guide and negotiator for all things ‘venue’.

l To the IC23 Steering Committee – Christine Pfeiffer, Adela Blevin, Mariana Scotti, Nicole Leong, and Sabrina Schmidt – for being here for the long run.

l Special thanks go out to Lynn Holt for being our Pune liaison for pune blankets and belts, to Marj Rash for getting our prop kit mats, and Israel Avendano for manufacturing our prop bags.

l Thank you to the current IYACSR Board – Sheri Cruise, SriVarada Kota, Courtney Yezzi, Lisa Urbanek, and Elisabeth Moseley for their support. Thanks, also, to the 2019-2020 IYACSR boards who started this path with me.

A special thanks to the IC23 organizers who courageously joined me on this journey: Nina Paloma, SriVarada Kota, Suli Anna Tay Bulanda, and Nicholas Jouriles. Their steadfast support and positive encouragement brought IC23 to life!

To Linda Nishio, Christie Hall, and Eddy Marks, thank you for this magazine, Sankalpa. A beautiful, thoughtful, and well done commemorative of IC23!

Apologies if I have forgotten anyone. Know that you hold a special place in my heart. And everlasting gratitude to Guruji and Geetaji, whose radiant sankalpa shines on us all!

In

joy,

Kathleen Quinn IC23 Chair

IYNAUS Board

IYNAUS Officers and Executive Counsel

President: Gloria Goldberg

Vice President: Hector Jairo

Martinez

Treasurer: Tay Bulanda

Secretary: Adrienne Klein

Equity and Inclusion Officer:

Stephanie Perry-Bush

Assessment Liaison: Tonya Garreaud

Ethics Committee Chair: Janet Lilly

Regional Representatives

Ramona Atanacio (IYANC)

Amy Brown (IYALA)

Sheri Cruise (IYACSR)

Lisa Henrich (IYASW)

Gretchen House (IYASCUS)

Susan Johnson (IYAUM)

Avery Kapala (IMIYA)

Janet Lilly (IYASE)

Rosie Richardson (IYANE)

Sara Russell (IYANW)

Dan Shuman (IYAGNY)

Jennie Williford (IYAMW)

IYNAUS Staff

Nicholas Jouriles, Web Manager

Tonya Garreaud, Assessment co-chair

Tori Milner, Assessment co-chair

Q Sanders, IYNAUS Store Manager

Abhijata,

friends and colleagues from around the world, IYACSR welcomes you with open hearts. May we all experience the depth of Sankalpa of our lineage: Guruji, Geetaji, Sunitaji, Prashantji & Abhijata.

An asana must be righteous and virtuous. By righteous I mean that it must be true. By virtuous I mean that it must be done with the right intention… In this way the asana is a sacred offering.

– B.K.S. Iyengar, Light on Life

Photo: Julia Pedersen

Sankalpa, 3

From the President, 4

Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and Justice in Iyengar Yoga, 4

From the Chair of the Convention, 5

From the Editor, 7

Interview with Prashant S. Iyengar on Sankalpa with Rajvi Mehta, 12

F ORMING THE D ETERMINATION

Truth: The Ethical Path to Practice by Sandhya Corine Biria, 15

Sraddha – Replenishing Strength Within My Heart by Gabriella Giubilaro, 18

Live Your Sankalpa, Hold It Deep Within the Heart by Jaki Nett, 20

B RINGING THAT D ETERMINATION INTO P RACTICE

Journey to the North Star by Lisa Walford, 22

Studying Cause and Effect Creates Discrimination, Discernment and Neutrality by Pixie Lilas, 25

C ENTERPIECE F EATURE : ABHIJATA IYENGAR , 28-29

A R ANGE OF P RACTICES /E XPERIENCES

Practicing with the Intention of a Quiet Mind by Chris Saudek, 30

The Vow Took Me by Eddy Marks, 33

Sankalpa – a Process of Listening Deep Inside by Holger Aguilar, 34

Vow as Inner Guru by Victoria Austin, 36

LEARNING FROM O NE A NOTHER

Build Sankalpa Through Love and Community by Deidra Demons, 38

To Bring an Intention to the Heart: Practice by Michael Lucey, 40

IYASCR, 52 Thank You to Sponsors & Vendors, 53 Convention Schedule and Map, 54

From the Editor

The theme of our convention is ideal for personal inquiry – sankalpa – a determination formed in the heart or mind.

Our writers have given us their very personal responses to our suggested topics: How does a virtuous motivation form in the heart? Where does inspiration come from? What happens when we trace cause and effect?

Our writers come from around the globe and range from our most senior teachers to younger teachers with many years of experiences yet to come. They bring in ancient and modern philosophy.

In reading each of these pieces, I found myself reflecting both on how much we all have in common and on how much we all may learn from each other in our differences.

May these voices join your own as you engage in your own inquiry and develop your own sankalpa in this week of community and study with Abhijata Iyengar.

Sincerely, Christie Hall

We believe that the tradition of Iyengar Yoga should live in the world.

Thank you Abhijata for helping us keep Guruji's teachings relevant

Iyengar Yoga Association Los Angeles Yoga for Health and Harmony

IYALA welcomes Abhijata Iyengar to the 2023 Convention.

Since 1984 IYILA has been spreading the art, science, and philosophy of Iyengar Yoga to our community and beyond. Please join IYILA for our many ongoing virtual classes, workshops and our community donation based class every Sunday. We are here to support your practice of Iyengar Yoga.

IYILA.ORG

THE IYENGAR YOGA ASSOCIATION OF THE MIDWEST welcomes

Abhijata Iyengar

THANK YOU FOR BEING A BEACON OF INSPIRATION IN OUR COMMUNITY

We are always looking to grow the IYAMW community. JOIN US by becoming a member. GET INVOLVED and volunteer your skills. PRACTICE TOGETHER at our annual retreat: Sept. 13-15, 2024

www.IYAMW.org

Interview with Prashant S. Iyengar on Sankalpa with Rajvi

Mehta, transcribed by Arti Mehta

Ravji

Mehta: How do you explain the meaning and concept of Sankalpa

?

Sankalpa also involves your own assessment about your own abilities, qualifications, capacities, capabilities. That is an implication of sankalpa. You must know that you are fit to handle and execute it.

Prashant Iyengar: Sankalpa is a very broad concept, and it cannot be fully rendered in any other language because of its implications, nuances and its depth. Literally it means resolution or determination. The human being is said to be a karma yoni – i.e. he has a right to karma. The second chapter of the Bhagavad Gita refers to karmay-evādhikāras. It means that humans are empowered to do karmas and they have adhikara – the right, duty, along with qualifications to do them. Determination or resolution becomes the foundation for any formal activity - karma. We need no determination or resolution to start any informal activities related to our worldly experiences under our mundane gravities. But, for any formal activity, we must resolve and then decide on the course of action. So, you have to be well decided on what you want to do. If you are not decided or not well decided, then you have more chances of wandering away and then thinking: “Should I do? Should I not do?” If you are undecided, then you have doubts in your mind, and if you have doubts, then you can’t resolve what to do. If you are not definite about what you want to do, then you can’t determine an action.

So, before achieving resolution or a determined condition of the mind, we need to become sure about what we should be doing. These are important diagnostics of activity. Human intelligence is vulnerable to oscillations, and you will not get sufficient motivating impetus if you are not decided or have doubts.

You will need to have a profound thought process to become aware of the pros and cons of what you are going to do. You should also be clear of the consequences of what you are going to do – the process, clarity about the machinery needed for the activity.

You just cannot be dogmatic and determined to do something if you have not invested thought into it. Otherwise, at a later point in life, you will be flickering, you will be oscillating and have doubts. So there must be thought process. Everything must be well thought about, particularly with respect to formal activities.

For informal activities, we have to take the dynamics of life into consideration. There have to be contingencies for many things you cannot foresee. And many things are carried out as activities because you did not expect, you did not envisage. So we have to envisage human life.

But there are times when human beings will have volition, resoluteness, planning, preparedness. One should be well-prepared, rather than not prepared or underprepared. One should be well-prepared for doing anything. There are certain nuances to being well-prepared, implications to being well-prepared. One of these is to be resolute.

To be resolute does not mean being irrational or dogmatic. You can be resolute about something because of dogmatism, but you know what are the consequences of such things.

We all understand the idea of being well determined, well resolute about something, but we do not see what is necessary to be resolute. What is the foundational aspect or the preparations or the thought invested in what we are doing?

In our life, everything is not accidental. Many things can be planned and done. So sankalpa or determination gives importance to a profound, sufficient thought process. Thought investment is fundamental to being resolute. So now if you are going to have thought-investment, you need to understand what are the essentials of it. You can decide something on a whim, but while one is in the process of doing it, then one realises that the path is not smooth or that you are not well qualified, or underqualified or not qualified at all. This should not happen. It can happen when you decide

something on a whim, in a state of madness, when you are dogmatic where you don’t have your own assessment. Sankalpa also involves your own assessment about your own abilities, qualifications, capacities, capabilities. That is an implication of sankalpa. You must know that you are fit to handle and execute it.

RM: Today, youngsters decide on a vocation/profession or people plan out their life but life does not go as per plan – as what happened during the pandemic. Then, people may not have the ability to handle these situations. And, people have mental health issues.

PI: That is the major problem with the present social setup where one has to choose a career early in life. The human being unfortunately has become an earning machine. They must start earning money when they are around the age of twenty-five. Now at this age, one is not aware of life conditions. They are not literate about the dynamics of life and that is why it can misfire. Academics are designed where one can enter a professional course in pursuit of some kind of economic activity later in life. Life is not just about economic activity.

It should be noted here that in earlier times in India, we had a family system where it was not necessary to start earning money at a young age as the support system was strong and the economic needs were not as much as they are today. Families would have their own business or family activity. So, in case somebody had some limitations, their life was not in shambles because of the family support system. Now the social pattern is such that you need to be economically sound, have a job and then get married. In the earlier days, even if you were not settled economically, but the family was economically settled, it meant that the individual was naturally economically settled, that the wedding would take place and that family life would commence at an earlier age.

Now late marriages are creating so many problems, and we will not get into the social problems of this. The marriage age has gotten older, and by that time one would have developed so many likes and dislikes. Family life cannot be accommodated in the social life of a person. As one gets older, one is not malleable, so adjustments are not possible, reconciliations would not take place. In an early age, the girl and

Prashant Iyengar teaching a week-long workshop at the PYC (Poona Young Cricketers) Hindu Gymkhana, Pune, December 2017, launching the year-long B.K.S. Centenary Celebration throughout 2018.

Photo: Sameer Karmarkar

Truth: The Ethical Path to Practice

By Sandhya Corine Biria

“You must not cheat nor pretend.”

Guruji’s powerful words focus on our honesty toward the subject of Yoga – words working like a sharp blade, dry, simple, sober, beheading the claims of our artifice.

Rejecting flowery language, his language, like a chakra, the wheel of the gods, cuts our ego in a split second. These words, when directed toward you, create an acute pain; but then they remove the needle of ego, give freedom to the sobriety of your being, and let shine a pure smile.

To be – sat, which emerges from the word satya –truth, is the first glimpse of the guru. But when the guru is away, or “not needed”, the blade of truth loses its acuteness. Reality, being true to ourselves, hidden in the clutches of entangled thorns, is giving way to unconscious illusion and a hidden pride, called bhranti darshana. Thanks to practice, unconscious illusion may be revealed.

Or not…

Let me say a few words about us senior practitioners, sadhakas, for whom bhranti darshana, false reality, is hanging as a sword of Damocles. How are we to know, we more experienced sadhakas, that we have not lost the way? That we are on the right path?

…Alone….

What are the tools to check that we are right? Can the number of years of practice be the proof? Can the number of pupils be enough to confirm that we follow the right path? Can the praise of our pupils be a secure value?

Memory at least is of some use in recalling some imprints about being true to ourselves.

For instance, do you remember when we were stepping into the garden of the Institute, how was the feeling? Fearful? But not only. The mind was already sharp, the clothes of our pretention already on the

way to being removed. The process of no more pretending was already starting. This reality, nobody could have escaped it! A few words at the beginning of the class were definitely reframing us in what we are, and not what we were pretending to be.

Today, to get out of this illusion, to be true without Guruji’s physical presence, is another matter. Who can tell us that we do not know that we are not knowing? That we follow the wrong path, getting away from sat? I salute those who answer me that it is their inner Guru as well as their secure mind, that it is really their inner guru and not their ego or their mind, which keeps them following the right path.

Sadhakas of this level should not forget that they walk on a razor edge. At any time, they might be caught by the illusion of pretending to be, though it might be non-deliberate. To be aware of it is already a very precious step…

Integration is ethical. Pretending is like an empty shell looking nice for the outsiders.

Corine Biria adjusting a student in Kurmasana, Paris, 2022.

Ethical Path, Cont. on page 16

Photo: Anna Marchlewska

But cheating is not only an obstacle for experienced sadhakas. Juniors face it as well. Why go beyond the action? Why develop the details? Why apply carefully what we know? Neither junior sadhakas nor senior sadhakas escape these questions. The frontier is so thin, the temptation to stay below the bar is so convenient, no?

Guruji was reminding us that knowing but not doing is cheating. Not reaching the very end of the action is non-ethical. Non-ethical means asatya. It is another way to say cheating.

Integration is ethical. Pretending is like an empty shell looking nice for outsiders.

No doubt we can justify our cheating by our physical or mental laziness, our emotional upheavals. Yet it cannot completely explain the question: Why not go beyond?

Because what animates us to go beyond requires one main quality: strength – physical and mental strength (virya).

At the beginning of the practice, the mind is often agitated, caught by the outside conditions of life. The body might be dull. Physical and mental strength vary. That does not allow precision; it does not give room to apply our knowledge. Because this strength is missing.

Once, with all my naiveté, I went to Guruji asking him: You propose many different entrances at the beginning of the practice. How do you systematize that? The answer was as sharp as a blade: You must work on your own!

Nevertheless, he was saying concerning pranayama: If the exercise does not work, (if you understand that you cannot integrate), then change it. In the same way, if the unbalanced sadhaka starts his/her practice and keeps on brooding, change the process.

Whatever level the sadhaka has, whatever the obstacles he goes through, one other major quality is required: drdhata, determination. Determination to get out of remaining at the surface. Determination to get into the practice: in other words, to become integrated.

Because what animates us to go beyond requires one quality: strength – physical and mental strength (virya).

Corine Biria adjusting a student in Ardha Baddha Padma Paschimottanasana, Paris, 2022.

Ethical Path, cont. from page 15

Photo: Anna Marchlewska

There comes the fact that determination needs strength. Strength calls determination, determination calls strength. From these two, along with discipline, some energy springs out, that we can call prana, giving still new energy at another level. This energy, when it circulates better, does not come alone. The sharpness of prana comes along with the sharpness of citta, consciousness. And this improved and transformed consciousness is what will drive us to do better, to apply knowledge, to go beyond. Citta feeds prana, prana feeds citta. It is a self-regenerative force, which we can witness. These two deepen our integration.

So, when Guruji says to go beyond, to stay longer, to do better, to overcome our obstacles, he offers us the possibility to integrate, to BE. Many may complain that it was too difficult when he taught. It depends on our purpose of life: from well-being to yoga, that was his purpose.

“Through persevering effort (prayatna) and controlled mind, the yogin, completely cleansed from evil, and perfected through many births, then goes to the supreme goal.” (Bhagavad Gita, VI, 45). Guruji might refer to this shloka of the Bhagavad Gita, to answer doubtful minds.

Before touching these aspects, the beginning of daily practice is quite essential. We need keys to open the body and the mind, to overcome the mental or physical laziness, the upheavals of the emotional body. These keys can be of different types, according to the state of being. We can l use timing, longer than what we would like, or shorter than usual.

l develop precision in the first poses, or on the contrary use quick movements at first. l choose an adapted sequence.

But the environment for practicing is also quite fundamental. The choice made by the sadhaka among outside elements – what we read, what we watch, what we hear, what we say and think – all play a big role in the quality of the practice.

“The moment you discipline the intelligence, the body gets disciplined”, Guruji says.

That offers the possibility to shift from agitated mind, vyutthana citta, to a single mind, ekagrata citta. Single mind means integrity.

Once, one of my very good friends and an excellent

sadhaka was explaining to me that he was practicing pranayama only when he was waking up integrated. That meant that his practice was not regular, as integration was not coming daily. On a good day, he was on the platform; Guruji was explaining the practice of pranayama and saw with his sharp eyes that his practice of pranayama was poor. Of course, Guruji got wild and pinpointed that he was supposed to be regular in his practice.

Whatever level the sadhaka has, whatever the obstacles he goes through, one major quality is required: drdhata, determination.

Waiting for a good state of mind to start practicing, as this example shows, is not the answer. The real yogic process is the opposite: How to train the mind – starting indisposed and finishing united?

Then, this united mind gives a feeling of gravitation, which, in its turn, creates what Guruji names “religious mind,” from which a benevolent mind springs out. This is a good signal on the path…. F

About the author: While a university student in French literature 40 years ago, Corine Biria discovered yoga. Corine has been running the Centre de Yoga Iyengar de Paris along with her husband, Faeq, until he passed away April 2022. Meeting B.K.S. Iyengar in 1983 was the most profound and motivating experience of her life. Corine continues to learn to this day from the source of Iyengar Yoga, through the family and the institute in Pune.

Corine Biria teaching Janu Sirsasana, Paris, 2022.

Photo: Anna Marchlewska

Sraddha: Replenishing Strength Within My Heart

by Gabriella Giubilaro

As a student of physics at the University of Florence, the same place where Galileo started his studies of the celestial worlds, I believed only in the energy that was possible to measure with instruments.

For me, every mention of any other kind of energy was considered a product of a strange mind.

Moreover, I was raised with a Catholic education, going every Sunday to church with an elegant dress. My understanding was that it was necessary to respect some rules, like going every Sunday to church, to confess and to take communion, to be a religious person. For me, God was some entity outside us, some entity that I had to honor and respect so that I could go to Paradise at the end of my life.

I always felt like I was a rock in the ocean, stable in the middle of a big storm. I knew that the inner strength was coming from the practice, the discipline to practice every day regularly.

I was lucky because at the age of twenty-two I received as a present the book: Autobiography of a Yogi by Paramahansa Yogananda.

That book was a revelation, showing the existence of a different world, where a yogi spent his life reaching another level of awareness. The book opened my eyes to the possibility of seeing differently, of considering a life after life, and most of all the importance of discovering God inside ourselves. God was not only some entity outside me, but something I had to discover inside myself.

I was a 22-year-old young woman, quite happy and not suffering. I was looking forward to a life inside a laboratory studying some physical phenomenona.

But I believed at once in what I was reading about Yoga. I had sraddha in my heart in what I was reading: sraddha – faith, trust, confidence, loyalty.

In the Katha Upanishad, when Nachiketa was observing his father Vajasrava doing the special sacrifice, where he was required to give away all that he possessed, his heart at once became filled with sraddha.

“Sraddha: It is more than faith; it implies selfreliance, an independent sense of right or wrong, and the courage of one’s own conviction.”

(Upanishads translated by Swami Paramananda)

And Nachiketa reflected: “If he has voted to give away all possessions then he must also give me.”

Later when Yama, the god of Death, told him to choose three boons, Nachiketa was full of sraddha (faith and desire of learning). And it was his sraddha that sustained him not to ask for material rewards but only for spiritual knowledge.

For me, sraddha was what opened my interest and my heart to search for a different way of life, for a different goal that never has left me.

That sraddha convinced me to follow a vrata –religious practice – with different ideals, with different rituals.

The same year I started to practice Iyengar Yoga in Florence and from the first day I started a regular daily personal practice (my practice was over in ten minutes in the beginning).

Since then, almost 50 years have passed. Life has been beautiful and hard, full of joy and suffering as well. And often full of doubts. I had accidents, a broken body, broken spirit, and many antarayas (obstacles or impediments to practice).

Life is this way. And then time passes, age advances and the body becomes weaker. But inside my heart I always had some inner strength that helped me to go on, despite any difficulty. It is difficult to describe, but I always felt like I was a rock in the ocean, stable in the middle of a big storm. I knew that the inner strength was coming from the practice, the discipline to practice every day regularly. Particularly the practice of the inverted asanas that I was doing regularly for one hour in the afternoon. Year after year I realized how the practice was strengthening my will power. The daily practice became my goal, not only my means.

Then with time, I started to injure myself when I was trying to continue to practice the same way I had years before. It is difficult to continue to have sraddha when you feel pain. It took me a while to realize that it was not laziness, but weakness due to age. And then started the most difficult time – to maintain this inner fire, to practice with care, always searching for that line between laziness and injury. And I made many mistakes, many times I went over the line.

Now I nourish the fire of the practice by reading Yoga scriptures and books by B. K. S. Iyengar. I also look back at the notes from Guruji’s classes in the early times. So after many years of practicing both pranayama and asanas, I start to understand the refinement, the subtleties, the inner world. Year by year I started to read and study more and more, and these studies together with the practice nourished my determination to go on with Yoga and teaching.

At the beginning of the seventh book of the “Republic”, Plato tells the myth of the cave, one of the most famous and fascinating. In it we find again - expressed in the accessible language of the mythall the Platonic theory of knowledge, but also reaffirming the relationship between philosophy and commitment to life: to know the Good also means

practicing it; the philosopher who has contemplated the Truth of the World of Ideas cannot shut himself up in his ivory tower: he must return - at the risk of his own life - among men, to free them from the chains of illusory knowledge of the sensible world. *

In the same way, the desire for knowledge – the desire to go on and on exploring, to continue developing capacity of attention and awareness –was accompanied by the desire to share with others.

As in Plato’s cave, the man who is able to see the light goes back to share with the people who are able to see only the shade of reality, but not the light itself. So the desire to teach and share the path with others is a natural consequence.

Patañjali in the sutra I.20: “sraddha-virya-smrtisamadhi-prajña-purvakah itaresam,” lists the necessary qualities for the yoga path. Sraddha is the first one, and without sraddha all the other qualities –vigor, memory, power of absorption – are useless. As in the hymn Sraddha Suktam (Rg-Veda 10-151), it is said that sraddha makes the fire burn. Sraddha is the best among all kinds of wealth. F

*https://www.filosofico.net/Antologia_file/AntologiaP/PLATONE_%20IL%20MITO%20DELLA%20CAVERNA%20(.htm

About the author: Gabriella Giubilaro started the practice of Iyengar Yoga in Florence with Dona Holleman at the age of 22, while studying physics at university. After one year, she decided to dedicate her life to the practice of yoga. She attended every day that Dona was teaching for 18 years, sometimes as a student, sometimes as an assistant. In 1983 she went to Pune for three months. When Dona started her own method, it was clear to Gabriella that she would continue with Guruji and Geetaji: “With Dona I learned to practice regularly with integrity. With the Iyengar family I learned the principles of yoga: I learned how to observe the body, I learned the depth of yoga.” She opened her school in Florence in 1989, and, with the permission of Guruji, founded the Italian Iyengar Yoga Association with other teachers.

Gabriella Giubilaro practicing Urdhva Baddhangullyasana in Padmasana, Japan.

Gabriella Giubilaro adjusting a student in Ardha Chandrasana, Czech Republic.

Courtesy: Gabriella Giubilaro

Courtesy: Gabriella Giubilaro

Live Your Sankalpa, Hold It Deep Within the Heart

by Jaki Nett

constitute a sankalpa, in part because I was airing my intention with others. The interesting thing is when I stopped broadcasting my persona, I became a vegan and started my actual study of yoga.

The word sankalpa implies a solemn vow, an intention, a resolution or determination, formed in the mind, set in the heart.

A sankalpa is a statement. It is a short phrase or sentence consisting of clear and concise wording. The desired effect of a sankalpa is to bring a positive change to one’s thoughts or patterns of life. Once a sankalpa has been created, it is to be repeated inwardly, always using the same wording, to instill it into the mind so that in time it will become internalized to the deepest part of the consciousness. As with the nature of all Sanskrit words, a sankalpa carries with it energy. To retain its energetic potential, it should not be shared with others or spoken out loud but held deep within the heart and soul.

When I first started my study of yoga it was in the early 1970s. Now, I want to direct your attention back to the previous sentence. I used the word “study”. This word actually gave a false impression to the reality of me starting yoga. (Wording is very important in creating a sankalpa.) Actually, what started me going to yoga classes was not that I was really interested – I was inquisitive. My query arose from pictures of people, at that time, who did “yoga” and “who were vegetarian.” I liked the persona I saw and wanted to project it as my own image. To reinforce my persona I told anyone, whenever the opportunity presented itself, “I do Yoga and I am a vegetarian.” Even though I created short and concise wording to express my “yoga image,” it did not

Sankalpa is a positive aphorism, resolution, or vow. Phrasing differentiates a “wishful statement” from a sankalpa. A wishful statement is like a New Year’s resolution that is made, with all the best intentions on Jan.1, in hopes that it will bring about a positive change, i.e., “I will stop arguing and be more peaceful”. A sankalpa also states the desire for change but it is phrased in the present tense, as in “I am peaceful”.

A sankalpa statement sets up mental pictures in the directions of change. The desire for change comes after an undesired habit is recognized and a desire to replace it or a create a new one develops. In psychology realizing a wanted change is called self-realization. Example:

l Wishing statement: “I want to feel more at peace”

l Sankalpa: “I’m feeling peaceful”.

Both are expressing the same desire, but they are carrying different energy. Thinking and feeling, “I’m feeling peaceful” over time will be transmuted from a conscious thought to assimilation. From assimilation one actively starts living and expressing it. In psychology this is known as self-actualization.

A sankalpa starts to form at that point when you know a change is needed for your betterment. Saying your sankalpa and living it are two aspects at the opposite ends of the same continuum.

When sankalpas are created, their duration lasts for as long as they are needed to instill a new thought or behavior pattern. There are distinct stages when developing a sankalpa. First, you must realize the need for a change. Second, you must choose words concisely to bring your realized desire into fruition. Third, you repeat your sankalpa at the time and place where you want it to grow and mature.

An important precept to an effective sankalpa is

The power of a sankalpa is to quietly live it.

Jaki Nett practicing Adho Mukha Virasana, 2020.

Courtesy: Jaki Nett

that it is not to be shared. The dichotomy here is that when a vow is kept a secret, it is easy to not follow through. But the power of a sankalpa is to quietly live it. In order for a sankalpa to work its magic, it must be so deeply internalized that it dissolves into its purest essence and becomes part of your nature.

During one of the last conversations I had with my teacher, she talked about an aspect she wanted to see us develop in our teaching. As I listened to her, I felt her words soaking into me. Her desire regarding our teaching became one part of my sankalpas.

The Yoga Sutras of Patañjali speak to the issue of sankalpa and practice:

Sutra 1.20 speaks on necessary mindsets in practice.

“Practice must be pursued with trust, confidence, vigour, keen memory and power of absorption to break this spiritual complacency.”

Sutra 1.21 speaks on intensity of resolution and progress of practice. “The goal is near for those who are supremely vigorous and intense in practice.”

Sutra 1.22 speaks on levels of practice. “There are differences between those who are mild, average and keen in their practices.”

Asana can be done mechanically and mindlessly; but the sutras above clearly urge us to practice with intention. Asana practice at any level is fueled by the practitioner’s nature and commitment. As one becomes more keen and intense in the study and practice of yoga, sankalpas start to form and bubbleup. When deeply contemplated, these sankalpas become the mental links that tether the physical practice of asana to the soul/Soul.

I wrote a question to Geeta. Her reply was: “Teach what you know and do not hide it in your heart.”

Sankalpa

A solemn vow, intention, resolution or determination formed and held in the mind and heart and soul. F

About the author: Jaki Nett, certified at Iyengar Yoga Level 3, is co-owner of Iyengar Yoga Napa Valley. She started her formal Iyengar yoga study at the Iyengar Yoga Institute of San Francisco in 1982. Her first study with Geeta and Mr. Iyengar was in 1986, and she has traveled to Pune 25 times. Jaki holds a master’s degree in Humanistic Psychology and taught Humanistic Psychology for five years on the college level. Jaki has written a book on pelvic floor dysfunctions, A Crack in the Mask-The Felt Sense Method®: A Humanistic Approach to Managing Incontinence. Jaki teaches public and private classes and workshops nationally and internationally in-person and via Zoom. Jaki does continual study in anatomy. Her teaching style is an unembellished methodical blend of Iyengar yoga, functional anatomy, design, symmetry and movement.

When deeply contemplated, these sankalpas become the mental links that tether the physical practice of asana to the soul/Soul.

Jaki Nett practicing Vrksasana, 2020.

Journey to the North Star

By Lisa Walford

There’s a nest of noisy starlings that have decided to take up residence in the vent above my stove. Their intention is to survive; I suppose mine is as well. They are dependent on their instincts. I depend on my conscience, or so I like to think! I am privileged, practice yoga, am healthy, happy, own my home, and have a sense of purpose to my life. I am not driven by survival; I can choose my sightlines. There are still many among us who do not have this good fortune. Life begins, we leave the nest, perhaps we migrate, we mature, some follow the path of least resistance and go with the flow, while others point their compass toward a North Star: goodness, discernment, integrity, service.

My North Star? Perhaps it is my alpha intention, do no harm. And second, will my actions be of benefit? Are they helpful? Are they kind? Is it enough to recognize my intentions and make sure that they are good? Are my intentions the North Star? Or do they simply point north? What journey does an intention take on its way to my North Star?

Like a seed, intentions can sprout into words and deeds that often take on a life of their own. Consider a work of art. Does the intention of the artist rest in the act of creation? Perhaps. Whether it be musical, poetic, narrative, or visual, some works calm us, some arouse us, some provoke us. Once the art is complete, viewers bring their own impressions to the work.

Or consider when you begin your yoga practice. Perhaps you begin intending to focus on inversions

When I plant a seed, an intention, I can look inward at my motive or forward toward my goal. Intention encompasses both. Do I prioritize my inner landscape or the potential effects of my actions?

Lisa Walford practicing Parivrttaikapada Sirsasana, 2016.

Photo: Ross Smith

and discover that today one shoulder is aggravated. What to do? Do you avoid, attack, or simplify your plan? Like the work of art, some asanas provoke us, and some appease us, and often it simply depends on what else is going on in your body and in your life. Once you begin your practice, you realize that circumstances may reframe your original plan.

When I plant a seed, an intention, I can look inward at my motive or forward toward my goal. Intention encompasses both. Do I prioritize my inner landscape or the potential effects of my actions? The inquiry in bringing anything to fruition is where the surprise, the growth, and the clarity ripens. The karmic effects of our words and actions get tangled up with the world and may require untangling. In the murky waters of figuring it out, we may uncover deeper threads of intentionality. The lotus grows and blooms from the murky mud. This is the inner quest.

The roots of internal patterns go through superficial gradients of preferences (ragas) and prejudices (dvesa). Beneath that layer lies an instinctual fear of pain and suffering (abhinivesa). This fear may be emotional or physical, and perceived, imagined or subconscious. Remember the baby birds in the hood above my stove? They operate on instinct. We often do as well, but we can recognize how intimately our perception of an experience shapes the experience. We can feel whether we are avoiding something or are intoxicated with it. And when we quiet down enough to objectify the experience, to study ourselves in it, to perhaps feel where in the body the fear or desire lives, we begin to sense the subconscious impressions called vasanas i that give rise to our habitual reactive behavior, or samskaras.

For example, prior to a hairline fracture in the neck of my femur joint I would practice Eka Pada Sirsasana (leg behind the head) regularly. It gave my back such a deep release that I grew to crave that practice. I had to suspend my practice of everything except inversions until the bone healed. Once the leg healed, I was fearful of any deep external rotation in the hip, but I missed the benefit I gained for my back by doing deep external rotations. Slowly, I

tested the waters. It took about ten months, and I was able to regain the range of motion to resume my practice of Eka Pada Sirsasana. Some might say that I should have surrendered that asana, yet with patience and perseverance the fear of breaking the bone subsided as I grew stronger and more confident. My craving overcame my fear, the benefits gained through a wise practice helped to wean away the anxiety. It took patience, and the acceptance that my practice would change daily. Can the mind that created this behavior understand the roots that drive it? Behavioral habits from childhood, systemic or generational trauma, and daily interactions create the impressions that have shaped us into who we think we are.They are like silhouettes in the mind. For example, I am very short, under five feet. As a child I was often delegated as the last pick in team sports. As a teen, I was seen as a child. In my twenties I was able to play movie roles of a pre-teen, I had no curves. Because of all this, I was shy, quiet, often overlooked and not taken seriously. I was stuck, emotionally, by how people perceived me. I am also a second-generation holocaust survivor and I now realize how my parents internalized their trauma, how they rarely expressed any emotion. Only when I began teaching did I learn to project, to appear bigger, and to own my experience.

we begin to sense the subconscious impressions …

The lotus grows and blooms from the murky mud of these impressions. Only through a sincere introspective process of untangling impressions will the mind be able to witness itself as the farmer who waters the roots and who can pull out the weeds.ii What actions help and which harm? With this discernment we have the choice to gradually reshape instinctive behavior and point toward our North Star. Then our intentions can germinate from a clear heart rather than a muddy mind.

As the poet David Whyte says: “Find the pale nobility of quiet that ripening demands.” iii Our

And when we quiet down enough to objectify the experience, to study ourselves in it, to perhaps feel where in the body the fear or desire lives,

The body becomes the toolbox, and the facets of mind become the tools that are refined, honed, and mastered through moment-by-moment attention to the constant fluctuating nature of matter. This discernment cultivates an active inner listening to the pulse of intention, action, impact, self-reflection, pause, and evolve – or start again.

journey begs for patience, courage, and tenacity.

Ultimately, my intention/motive would be to live a life of service, respect, honesty, and kindness. But that, without self-inquiry and introspection, can be a meager veneer that simply placates the ego. To train the wavering mind to focus, to be calm, and to cultivate an inner spaciousness free from distraction is the practice of yoga. Yogah cittavritti nirodhah. iv The body becomes the toolbox, and the facets of mind become the tools that are refined, honed, and mastered through moment-by-moment attention to the constant fluctuating nature of matter. This discernment cultivates an active inner listening to the pulse of intention, action, impact, self-reflection, pause, and evolve – or start again.

When the Iyengar Yoga Institute of Los Angeles held a benefit fundraiser, I agreed to do 108 drop backs, Urdhva Dhanurasana II. I worked up to this for weeks, finding the connection from the heels to the kidneys, the rotation of the legs, the rhythm of the breath, and the rebound off the floor to stand back in Tadasana. As Guruji often said, my mind had to be in many places and in one place simultaneously. Random distractions were inevitable, but I did not let them throw me off center.

Actively practicing self-awareness cultivates honesty, respect and kindness both inside and out! Whether we observe karma on a meta level, such as the impact of social and political choices on a global scale, or karma that is a result of our individual actions, when we step back and align with deep listening, we realize that we are not in control of all that much. We can align with our intentions, with deep listening, and then chose what right action seems helpful. The only thing we can predict is that we have a choice to aim toward our North Star, and to set our intentions inward toward the heart. F

i Light on the Yoga Sutras of Patanjali by Shri B.K.S. Iyengar, Sadhana Pada II.13 & II.14

ii Ibid. Kaivalya Pada IV.3, IV.12 & IV.13

iii Winter Apple, from Pilgrim, poems by David Whyte

iv Ibid. Samadhi Pada I.2

About the author: Lisa Walford holds a Level 3 Iyengar Yoga certificate; has been teaching in the Los Angeles area for 40 years, and teaches workshops worldwide. She is on the board for Iyengar Yoga Therapeutics. She currently teaches online through YogaWorks and is a co-owner of the Center for Yoga in Los Angeles. She co-authored two books; The Anti-Aging Plan and The Longevity Diet.

Lisa Walford practicing Natarajasana, c. 2002.

Courtesy: Lisa Walford

Studying Cause and Effect Creates Discrimination, Discernment and Neutrality

by Pixie Lilas

Our world often seems keen to invite us to not be accountable, to not take responsibility for our own actions and being. It is usually easier, and even encouraged, to try to find quick-fix solutions, to place the causes of our problems somewhere outside our own influence.

We often speak of the desire to find more clarity, greater discrimination and discernment. Yet it will be a struggle to bring about the changes required to produce different outcomes, if we are not sincerely interested in examining the effect that our own everyday actions have.

In short, to grow more, we will need to make a solemn vow of intention to delve deeper.

Yoga practice is happily and quintessentially a study of cause and effect. This study is the very foundation of our real learning in practice.

When I do this action, what does it bring? When I say these words, in this way, what impact do they have on others? This is very evident in our teaching. What effect do my actions have on me, and on the people around me?

This study of cause and effect is essential for all of us, whether we are aware of it or not. This is a key that is vital to learning discrimination, one that we cannot afford to ignore if we are genuinely searching for a better, more harmonious way of being.

If we have come to Yoga, I suspect we are already seeking change, consciously or unconsciously. Let’s then do the subject, and ourselves, justice. Guruji encouraged us to be sincere students, to honestly be engaged in our practice. It is the conscious, observed doing that helps us gain meaningful experience.

The ability, usually learned, to step back and objectively observe is what helps us identify the obstacles in our path, without judgment. Being neutral is important. Neutrality is akin to equanimity. It allows us to have sharper vision because, in that moment of neutrality, our view is not

clouded by emotional pulls.

This of course all sounds good and appealing, but what do I actually need to do to get myself there? What will bring me closer to my stated goal of increasing discernment and discrimination within myself?

It’s important to be practical in our approach.

A mechanic will trace back from the problems presenting in our car to the source; a good doctor will carefully observe all symptoms, more and less obvious, in order to get closer to a successful diagnosis and treatment. When encountering a problem in practice, a Yoga practitioner will continue to explore themselves with an open mind, employing “courage and caution” (B.K.S. Iyengar) to discover a more fruitful way forward.

When I am faced with an obstacle, first I have to identify, specifically, what the problem is in order to remove or at least better manage it. If I am not tracing back to the causes of the effects of each of

Yoga is the art of selftransformation, but authentic search for true change requires steady and reflective practice

Pixie Lilas practicing Urdhva Dhanurasana, Sydney, Australia, 2018.

Photo: Jack Murray

Studying Cause, cont. on page 26

The body, and the mind, give us constant feedback, if observed. It’s important to investigate with simplicity and neutrality what is often directly in front of us.

my actions, physical, emotional or psychological, I will keep spinning on the spot and fail to progress. This can lead to discouragement and even loss of faith in our process.

If we can find the source of a problem and really see it, and then trace back to how it was first generated, we can come closer to finding the solution. We will now probably also need to change something to create a different outcome. That can be uncomfortable, and it may challenge our perception of ourselves and our belief in how we practice.

We may find certain recurring patterns in our everyday life. For example: My hip or knee always gets sore in forward bends; my partner is always so reactive to what I say; my students are just lazy people and they never listen in class; Pranayama makes me anxious and not calmer or more mindful. The list goes on.

Notice how the cause of these problems is someone or something else’s doing. According to this, I have

no control over how things will turn out. This, in itself, creates anxiety and distress.

What to do?

Knowing our human tendencies, Guruji requested that we start with the body. He often said that the body was a tangible object, and the mind was a treacherous friend. He asked us to work through the body to find our deeper selves. He offered a clear and discernible way forward.

Physically, if we have a back problem and keep practicing in the same way, ignoring the pains and negative results, we might easily shift the blame to the outside. Yoga is not good for me. The teacher made me do something wrong. Backbends are always just bad for my back. Similarly, if motivation for practice is lacking, it’s often not me, not my fault, I just have a busy life.

If the problem is something that doesn’t have anything to do with me or my actions, it essentially means that I can’t change anything. Yoga is the art of self-transformation, but authentic search for true change requires steady and reflective practice.

Through our practice, our daily meeting with ourselves on our mat, we have the perfect canvas to explore. The body, and the mind, give us constant feedback, if observed. It’s important to investigate with simplicity and neutrality what is often directly in front of us.

I think of it a bit like detective work. The inspector walks into the room where the crime took place and uses powers of observation. Experience will lead him or her to cast a clear eye over the entire situation, looking for ways to solve the mystery: a cause, a motive, an unexpected clue. What am I missing? What did I not see? What did I ignore? Let me go back to the beginning and look again.

Yoga practice is the same.

Pixie Lilas practicing Vasisthasana, Sydney, Australia, c.2005.

Photo: Simon Joannou

Studying Cause, cont.. from page 25

Guruji often said that the body is telling us so many things, but we just don’t listen.

On a very simple level, our own eyes will be able to tell us whether our outstretched arm is bent or straight. Even for a new student, there need be no illusions about it, if we look. This is part of the job of learning to practice. Paying attention is something we can get better at, and as we become increasingly mindful in our actions, greater clarity starts to emerge.

Mindfulness is also a practice. We just need genuine intention. “Be bothered” (as Geetaji would say) to delve deeper and we get effective results. Finding a better outcome is also motivating, and it draws us back to our Yoga again.

It is therefore helpful to keep our task simple and clear: practice and observe. Guruji spoke of doing an action and observing the reaction, and then seeing what the next action should be. It’s linear, but we need to look at that action from all its different sides.

Yoga practice, when engaged and focused, can in this way teach us to become more responsible and clearer about the effects of our words and actions. This awareness can lead us to more positive interactions with our body, with our mind, with other people, with the world around us. If we start to see the effects of our actions, we can then trace back to find the origin, which may be positive or negative, conscious or unconscious. Identifying the cause will then clarify what needs to be done.

Investigation and self-exploration.

All practice is a learned activity. We can develop self-observation and get better at paying attention to what feedback we receive, if we apply ourselves regularly to that activity. We become more refined in listening to the sound of an instrument we are learning to play. Our ears get better tuned. We start

to identify where our fingers or breath went wrong, producing something discordant, or we can also see what helped to create something pure.

The real challenge is how we meet those obstacles, how we face our frailties and our vulnerabilities. Are we willing to see?

Guruji spoke of our body being our instrument, a tangible tool to learn with and from. We can start to be aware, each day, of what we are lacking and what would bring us more balance. Balance, inner alignment in all senses, brings stability and less effort in being. This, in turn, creates more room for stillness and clarity.

Obstacles in our path are part of human existence. We will have sorrows, and pains and physical challenges. We will age. We will grieve for our losses. The real challenge is how we meet those obstacles, how we face our frailties and our vulnerabilities. Are we willing to see?

Yoga can be with us every step of the way. If we choose to practice, we can learn to practice wisely, in a way that can help us be more discerning, to choose our actions cleanly, to discriminate between the real and the imagined. We can become more neutral, more innocent, less clouded.

From here we start to see the next layers of possibility. F

About the author: Pixie Lillas started yoga with Dona Holleman in 1976 in Florence, Italy. She was accepted to study for seven weeks with Guruji at RIMYI in Pune in 1977. From that first visit, Pixie returned to Pune almost every year up to the COVID travel restrictions in 2020.

In 1980, Pixie moved to Sydney, Australia, and co-founded Balmain Iyengar Yoga Studio, where she continues as principal teacher and director. She teaches workshops and retreats in Australia, New Zealand, the United Kingdom and Europe. Over the last 6 years Pixie has also been involved in creating Yoga Vastu, an online Yoga practice and learning resource.

Photo: James Greene

Photo: Todd Semo

Photo: Shael Sharma

Photo: Shael Sharma

Courtesy: IYNAUS Archives

A BHIJATA I YENGAR

Left page: from left, clockwise Abhijata Iyengar at the B.K.S. Iyengar Centenary Celebration, Pune, 2018; Abhijata teaching Utthita Trikonasana at the Florida IYNAUS Convention, 2016; Abhijata walking down the aisle with huge photo of Guruji behind her at the Dallas IYNAUS Convention, 2019; Geetaji adjusting Abhijata in Dandasana at the Portland IYNAUS Convention, 2010; Abhijata asking Geetaji a question at the B.K.S. Iyengar Centenary Celebration, Pune, 2018.

This page: from top left, clockwise Abhijata adjusting a student in Eka Pada Adho Mukha Svanasana at the Dallas IYNAUS Convention, 2019; Abhijata demonstrating Bakasana at the Dallas IYNAUS Convention, 2019; Abhijata demonstrating Kurmasana at the Dallas IYNAUS Convention, 2019; Abhijata adjusting a student in Eka Pada Sirsasana during a demonstration at the B.K.S. Centenary Celebration, Pune, 2018.

Photo: Sameer Karmarkar

Courtesy: IYNAUS Archives

Courtesy: IYNAUS Archives

make our

Practicing with the Intention of a Quiet Mind

by Chris Saudek

Prashant Iyengar has often said that how you do an asana depends on why you are doing it. What do you intend to accomplish: to ameliorate a specific issue, to improve your strength or flexibility, to have more peace of mind? I was told yoga would help me relax from my stressful graduate school life. Also, I was curious. I didn’t know what it was, other than what I saw with my eyes, which was purely physical.

In the early days of taking class with Guruji, however, I felt an incredible peace and awareness of something deeper within me. My whole person felt transformed and that made me feel as though the struggle in those demanding classes was worth it. The struggle also brought great joy and a meaning to my life that I would only later understand.

Before I knew anything about the Yoga Sutras, I was getting a glimpse of the result of calming the fluctuations of the mind. Only later did I become familiar with Patañjali’s definition of yoga as “the cessation of movements in the consciousness” (yogas cittavrtti nirodhah). Exactly how Guruji managed to calm the fluctuations of our minds while seemingly just teaching us asana was not apparent to me in the early days.

The clarity with which he taught, the way he demanded our complete presence of mind, his challenge to us to assess constantly what our bodies and minds were doing, all these made our minds one pointed instead of scattered (nirodha instead of vyutthana). In Rohit Mehta’s commentary on the Yoga Sutras* he translates sutra III.11 (sarvarthata ekagratayoh ksaya udayau cittasya samadhiparinamah) as “There is a transformation in which the mind is aware of the silence which comes with the cessation of distractions. This transformation is known as samadhi parinama or awareness of the quiet.”

It was the awareness of a quiet mind that I felt after

a class with Guruji. Guruji also insisted that we leave our egos outside the practice room and made us see how our egos prevented us from learning.

Yoga is a practice that should touch every aspect of our life and transform our minds. How, when operating in our daily lives can we find that same calmness that we may experience after a good asana practice? As serious practitioners of yoga, our intention in practicing all aspects of yoga should be just that: cittavrtti nirodhah. Yoga practice may begin as asana, which may lead us to see things differently, but yoga practice should permeate our lives.

Yoga in the true sense is a way of looking at life, truly a way of life. It is a continual practice. Abhyasa, practice is defined in Sutra I.13 (tatra sthitau yatnah abhyasah) as the steadfast effort to still these fluctuations. From Sutra I.14 (sa tu dirghakala nairantarya satkara asevitah drdhabhumih) we are told it must be long, uninterrupted and alert. Furthermore, it must be pursued with mental and intellectual firmness, vigor, keen memory and complete absorption (Sutra I.20; sraddha virya smrti samadhiprajna purvakah itaresam). This is not something you decide to do and accomplish in a short period of time.

All along the path, however, Patañjali gives us clues as to how to accomplish our intention. And he tells us what the result is in IV.31 (tada sarva avarana malapetasya jnanasya anantyat jneyam alpam), translated as “Then, when the veils of impurities are removed, the highest, subjective, pure, infinite knowledge is attained, and the knowable, the finite, appears as trivial.” (Light on the Yoga Sutras of Patañjali, B.K.S. Iyengar)

To remove the veils of impurities, our intention must be to do everything within our power to make our thoughts and actions pure, i.e. without giving in to egoism, one of the main obstacles to spiritual growth, preventing us from learning and evolving. To make our thoughts pure, we must change the way we think. To make our actions pure, we must

To

thoughts pure, we must change the way we think. To make our actions pure, we must understand how we act and why. And if we can change the way we think, we may change the way we feel and act.

understand how we act and why. And if we can change the way we think, we may change the way we feel and act. Or perhaps we need to change our actions to change how we think. Then we may eventually get to that place where appropriate action comes before thought.

I have often tried to imagine what total liberation would feel like while – never having to think about how to respond in any situation, how generous to be, how patient to be, how kind, compassionate, friendly to be. There would be no question of this or that, no dualities. All the good qualities that we, as yogis, as individuals living among others, should emulate, would come naturally. How do we even begin? What are some of the clues that Patañjali has given us?

Changing our habits to make our thoughts and actions “pure” takes tremendous self-awareness and restraint. It requires us to live our lives in accordance with ethical principles.

One aspect of practicing with the intention of quieting the mind would be to vow to be nonviolent in thought, word, and deed. The yamas are called the maha-vratam, The Great Vow, and the core principle of the yamas is ahimsa, non-violence. Anger, frustration, impatience are all forms of

violence. Seeing any of these signs arising in our mind, we might first try to understand from where they are coming. On seeing them arise are we able to not act angry, frustrated, or impatient even at the height of these emotions? It may be difficult and it may seem like just acting at first. We are forced to become outside observers of our behavior.

By acting like the person we wish to be, we can become that person. If we make a concerted effort to practice something like non-violence, it can lead to an inner transformation of our mind. Then we have begun the practice of calming our own mind, the ultimate intention in practicing yoga.

Patañjali also asks us to practice emotions directed at others. Again, we need to move outside of ourselves. In Sutra I.33 he tells us to cultivate friendliness toward those who are happy, compassion to those who are suffering, joy towards the virtuous, and indifference toward wrong-doers. We find that being intentional about these practices make us better at them and they become natural actions.

In the event that we observe ourselves having feelings that go against these practices, Patañjali gives us Sutra II.33 which says that when negative thoughts and feelings arise, the opposite should be

Chris Saudek practicing Utthita Parsva Hasta Padangusthasana.

Courtesy: Pam Starcher & The Yoga Place, La Crosse, WI 2022. All rights reserved.

Being patient became more natural the more I practiced it. It was often a struggle, but struggle is essential to achieve higher goals. You must have the will to practice, even in particularly difficult circumstances, being the kind of person you want to be.

cultivated. Acting friendly when you don’t feel friendly is intentional even when it is difficult. Then perhaps friendliness becomes second nature and your mind has also become calmer as a result.

Going against what seems to be inborn nature is extremely difficult. For example, I don’t think I am naturally a very patient person. But I was given the challenge to be more patient when my husband was in the later stages of Parkinson’s disease and he became slower to think and to move. Being patient became more natural the more I practiced it. It was often a struggle, but struggle is essential to achieve higher goals. You must have the will to practice, even in particularly difficult circumstances, being the kind of person you want to be. The result of practicing patience was a quieter and calmer mind.

All aspects of life can be improved by the practice of yoga. But change requires us to stand outside of ourselves and observe our thoughts and actions. This leads us to understanding how to be the person we would like to be, to live with a more focused and calm mind. We will fail at times but we can resolve to keep trying. The reward of the discipline and struggle can be freedom from the fluctuations of your mind and a sense of a deeper meaning of Self. F

About the author: Chris Saudek is certified in the Iyengar method at Level 4 and has taught workshops at many studios in the United States, Canada, and internationally. She teaches regular classes through The Yoga Place in La Crosse, WI. She has helped train dozens of teachers in her over 40 years of teaching. With the help of Geeta Iyengar, Chris published Yoga for Pregnancy and made the six laminated sequences that address practices for restorative, pregnancy, minor back issues, high blood pressure, menstruation, and headache. She is also responsible for putting together the rope-instruction booklet, Yoga Karunta.

The IYNAUS Convention 2023 Organizers want to recognize Gwen Edelman & HelmsBriscoe for Outstanding Service. Thank You!

We are forced to become outside observers of our behavior. By acting like the person we wish to be, we can become that person.

The Vow Took Me

By Eddy Marks

I was 16, she a bit younger. I was raised in the city, she in the country. I was American, and she, Dutch … without a word of English. But it was one of those magical moments of instant attraction; our gazes locked and before we knew it we had covered the distance between us and we were standing on opposite sides of the fence, her face in my hands. I gazed into her large, warm, brown eyes with long curly lashes; my heart melted and our differences didn’t seem to matter. In those soulful eyes I could feel all her emotions, needs and desires – not different than mine. Strange to feel you understand each other without ever having met, without ever having spoken.

I held her head lovingly in my two hands and stroked her hairy face. She was the most beautiful Holstein cow I had ever seen! Really, the only one I had seen up close. I named her Gwendal. Not an animal anymore but a being. Her sentience left an indelible imprint on my heart that she was not just conscious but had a rich emotional life. No doubt with a loving mother; with friends and enemies; challenges and triumphs; good days and bad – just like me.

That evening when we had returned from our family outing in Solvang, my mom called us to dinner, and there, as though for the first time, I saw it: the steak on my plate. I had eaten it a hundred times before. I had begged my mother countless times for McDonald’s cheese burgers. I had slathered ketchup all over my hot dogs. I had barely noticed eating the Salisbury steak from our TV dinner tray as we watched the evening news.

But I had never realized what I was doing. I had never realized that I was eating sentient, conscious, loving beings – just like me. My mind wouldn’t accept it. I asked my mother did this come from a cow? She just looked at me for a moment then said, “Well, of course.” “Like Gwendal?” I said. She didn’t answer, and that is when all hope left me. The barriers came down and I was crushed, grief stricken, sobbing uncontrollably over the grievous harm I had caused. I was a murderer. I had murdered Gwendal. I had murdered her a thousand times over, repeatedly and without thought.

The date was January 22, 1975. It was lunchtime and I was walking from my class to the cafeteria when I suddenly stopped. I remember it like it was yesterday: the students milling about, the sounds of tennis rackets hitting balls and the warmth of the sun on my skin. That is when I knew I would never eat meat again.

Guruji has said something to the effect that if one cell in your body does not agree, then it is not full commitment. No cell in my body disagreed. I became a vegetarian then, there and forever.

Truly, I can not say if this is a vow or not. A vow in this case is a promise to commit myself not to harm animals, so it is a part of ahimsa (non-harming). And though I have done that, I feel that, for me, it is not so much that I took a vow as it is that the vow took me. F

About the author: Eddy Marks is a senior Iyengar Yoga instructor – Level 4. He is co-owner of the Iyengar Yoga Center of San Diego. Eddy lived and studied in Pune with the Iyengars for a year in addition to regular trips. He is the creator of the IYNAUS archives. He was director of the book: B.K.S. Iyengar – Archive Project 2007

Eddy Marks practicing Vasisthasana

Courtesy: Eddy Marks

Sankalpa: a Process of Listening Deep Inside

By Holger Aguilar

When yoga found me in 2003, I felt especially that asana practice was the answer to get in touch with my feelings and with emotions I had avoided feeling for many years. I started teacher training to learn more about the subject.

Teacher training with Faeq and Corine Biria in Paris was demanding and took three years. The first year was mostly about establishing a daily selfpractice. The next two years were all about learning how to teach and transmit one’s knowledge to students.

Self-practice is the fundamental and inevitable base to grow on the path. It takes strong resolution and intention to establish a root. Hence, I woke up at 4 am every morning and practiced asana for one hour, later for 90 minutes to two hours. Having an evolving sequence on hand helped me not to get lost in the question “what to do”. It was a hard time, especially having a demanding full-time job as front office manager at a hotel.

I learned how to keep going and felt how by practicing asana I was able to keep my mind much better under control and cope with challenging situations. It was worth getting up early and cutting sleep during this stage of my life. Yet later I had to learn that too little sleep was not helpful.

These days, I do not spend two hours on asana practice every day. Because of an even more timeconsuming full-time job and a current physical limitation, I needed to find a way to practice but in a more focused and time-efficient way. The result is: Practice happens every moment with a mindful and intentional mind. Shorter but focused asana practice is still included. Starting the day like this keeps me emotionally enchanted to see a purpose in my life: to experience whatever I am confronted with and fear less that things should be different.

I need quiet time in my life to focus on my personal intentions and goals. On a deeper level it is what brings me into harmony. Being quiet does not necessarily take much time if done regularly. It enables me to stay quiet, calm, and focused whatever I do and wherever I am. With only a few asanas, I connect with my body, mind and emotions.

When I started to read yoga philosophy, I noticed quite a few similarities with Buddhism. Moral conduct as a base of all is a key element to the eight-fold path that leads to liberation. Both traditions value and recommend “intention” – no. 2 on the eight-fold noble path of the Buddha and Bhagavad Gita, 4.19. So does modern psychology, e.g. Dr. Wayne W. Dyer: The Power of Intention. The Vedas define sankalpa as the will that precedes all actions. At this point, this search for understanding what life is about, who I am, and how to get out of suffering is my intention, my sankalpa

At age 27, I found a book about Buddhism by a German nun, Ayya Khema. I was absolutely fascinated and shocked at the same time: Shocked about the unsatisfactoriness of life based on permanent decay and impermanence of all that is us or around us.

Being quiet does not necessarily take much time if done regularly. It enables me to stay quiet, calm, and focused whatever I do and wherever I am. With only a few asanas, I connect with my body, mind and emotions.

Holger Aguilar practicing Eka Hasta Bhujasana, 2022.

Photo: Kelly Fogel

Sankalpa is the Sanskrit word for intention. San means “to become one with” and kalpa means “time” and “subconscious mind”. It’s a way to set an intention, to connect with your heart's deepest desire (in my case, liberation) and to fully express who you really are. It’s a process of listening deep inside yourself. Our sankalpa is not immediately visible, and it takes patience to let it naturally arise. The intention of the heart needs to merge with the intention of the mind to develop a balanced practice.

So what is the practice then?

Especially in Iyengar Yoga we are taught and encouraged to share with ourselves and our students what exactly needs to be done to reach a certain condition or asana.

Looking back, my steps so far make sense to me. This does not exclude that I could have done it differently nor mistakes I made. However, I feel more than ever that there is an energy that navigates me like a plane in the air to a next step that intellectually I cannot explain.

It is said that “Your Dharma finds you”, your duty in this life. I learned not to compare my way to any other person’s way. I felt I was different from the people around me – my family, in kindergarten, in school, and in adult life. I did not have a hard childhood; I felt loved and supported by my family.

Learning to teach yoga helped me to get a better understanding of myself. I do not consider myself an all-knowledgeable great teacher. It's more about sharing what I learned throughout the years. And there is so much more to learn, or, to better say, to realize what is important in and to life.

I realized what “yoga” means for me: spiritual growth using all elements of the eight-fold path outlined by Patañjali to grow and transform.

Profound changes occurred to me since I allowed myself to trust my intuition. I still get daunted

occasionally and have doubts of the direction of my life. Though now I feel the deep but smooth current that directs me. F

About the author: Holger Aguilar started his yoga journey early 2003 with Ashtanga Yoga. In 2007 his teacher introduced him to Iyengar Yoga and since the summer intensive 2008 in France with Faeq and Corine Bira, Holger knew that this was his way to continue. He achieved the Intermediate Junior I level in 2015. He studied with the Iyengar family in Pune multiple times for several months. He also took introductory classes in chanting and Sanskrit and traveled twice on pilgrimage to India’s holy Hindu and Buddhist places. Originally from Germany, Holger moved to California in early 2015 and became a student of Holly Hoffmann and Cathy Rogers Evans at Iyengar Yoga Palm Desert.

Holger Aguilar practicing Supta Virasana, 2022.

Photo: Kelly Fogel

Vow as Inner Guru

By Victoria Austin

A vow puts into words an intention deeper than words can express. A vow must reflect what one's inner or innermost self says is true. Thus a vow is like an inner guru whose guidance aligns with the meaning of one's embodied existence.

The Old Testament story of the prophets Elijah and Elisha reminds me of a great vow. Elijah performed great miracles. God grants Elijah's disciple, Elisha, double Elijah's spirit if he would accompany Elijah to the end. To me, the greatest power God granted was the ability to hear and follow the still small voice.

Geetaji skillfully invoked yoga as a practice process … of healing in its original sense, grounded in an innermost vow to become whole

A great vow is like the still small voice of the divine within each of us. To follow it completely, we must access the energy of the universe. Our access to hearing this inner voice gets deterred, distracted, or blocked in daily life, in the demands of the body, social life, emotions, breath, or of intellectual confusion or delusion. It is the power of practice that matures us, so that each of these distractions invites us to develop a strategy that allows us to go deeper into our lives, and into Life itself. A matured vow gives us intimacy and depth, connecting everyday action and perception to the voice of the entire universe, reflected in each moment of time like the moon reflecting in a single drop of water. Our happiness depends on heeding this voice.

Geetaji followed this inner voice, evident in her quiet strength of connecting asana and pranayama practice to Ayurveda, the science of how to live. She taught the eight limbs of yoga as a process of healing and purification, starting with actions of the external body and continuing inward to clear the way for concentration and meditation.

In her final teachings, Geetaji skillfully invoked yoga as a practice process or sadhana krama of healing in its original sense, grounded in an innermost vow to become whole. She clarified four stages of Ayurvedic healing embedded in Guruji’s teaching,

as steps and stages to thoroughly realize our vow:

1 Sodhana or basic detoxification. Guruji taught this as a physical benefit of introductory prac tice, where the focus is conquering inertia and confronting the difference between the shapes of poses as taught, and that dictated by our habits and preconceptions. A glimmer of light illuminates our ignorance as suffering. Even such a preliminary success generates faith to continue the healing process.

2 Sosana or reflective renunciation; here we stop nourishing the causes and conditions of ignorance and suffering, leading to their functional elimination. Guruji taught this as a physiological benefit that arises when we respect how nature has built us to function, removing obstacles to the flow and energy that gives life.

3 Sobhana or clear, auspicious, experienced, nonsuffering formation; here we experience the fruits of practice without dropping the practice. Guruji gave us practices that clarified the heart and mind, rebuilding ourselves in ways that do not obstruct our deep spiritual intention.

4 Samana or united, calm, settled, authentic awareness; here we experience just being, connecting with complete and perfect universal wisdom. When Guruji practiced in front of us, we could see his embodiment as a reflection of unified, unobstructed and all-pervasive light.

These four Ayurvedic steps to healing encapsulate how relying on a vow can turn our obstacles from frustrating experiences of distraction and delusion, to a road map for our progress on the path. Yoga Sutras I.14 and I.15 hint at how this might be:

l Long, uninterrupted, alert practice is the firm foundation for restraining the fluctuations.

l Renunciation is the process for detachment from desires.

In our busy lives, what might motivate us day after day to build a firm foundation of practice? What might be so important to us that we are willing to give up desire and aversion, for its sake? And how might our ability to live lives of wholeness develop over the course of long, uninterrupted practice?

What guiding standard, and what steps and stages of realizing it, would our alertness serve?

In my mid-50s, after a crippling series of accidents, though I had become a model patient, I had not healed. One day I realized that the unsatisfying quality of my recovery came from its disconnection with three of my ordination vows, which I had taken 30 years before because they reflected what truly gave me life:

l Refrain from all ill

l Cultivate all good

l Benefit all beings.

I thought, “Ill is harmful action.” I needed to reequip myself with knowledge and direct experience of what I was doing that worsened my condition, so I could stop doing that. As I revised my asana and pranayama practice, I realized that my harmful actions were unintentional, arising from ignorance and misperception. Painstakingly, I reconstructed my ability to associate my body sensations with the thoughts that described it and the strategies to resolve it. Studying how to refrain from reinjury taught me to distinguish the workings of the healing power of nature in my own body and mind. Functional recovery had begun.

Another turning point came when I started to understand that responding deeply to the difficulties was at heart a spiritual practice of opening to the pain, to shine light on the causes and building blocks of healing. This practice differentiated pain from suffering, allowing for specific skillful response. Thus began the realization of cultivating

good, and benefiting all parts by spreading the practice evenly throughout body and mind.

A great light began to grow in me, like the sun that calls forth transformation in a seed that has lain in the ground for eons. The sutras point to how a skillful farmer nourishes the seed of health, managing environmental and internal conditions to bring fruition. This way of working changed my life to one of more deeply and thoroughly realizing my vow. It allows me to be a person living in the light of vow. Vow is the foundation, the root, the basic plan of an accurate, meaningful practice in accord with what is.

In the library, years before, Guruji had taught me, "Light is life. Keep that inner light burning." Sometimes in the practice hall, he would not give me specific teachings for years at a time. But at that time, when I was broken from accident injuries, he played my spine like an organ, stage by stage connecting me with silent sound, with inner light, and with vow as inner guru.

That guidance can live on in me and in everyone I meet. It has empowered me to continue to follow the vow, one painful step of practice at a time, purifying and maturing from within. By clearing what blocks us from the light, we live in the light. F

About the author: Victoria Austin has studied yoga and Zen since 1971 and has taught Iyengar Yoga since 1984. She serves as an IYNAUS Level 3 Iyengar Yoga teacher, as a mentor and assessor for the next generation of teachers. In addition to teaching public classes at Iyengar Yoga Institute of San Francisco and San Francisco Zen Center, Victoria offers asana and pranayama to students from diverse settings, including workplaces, institutions, and meditation centers. Her ongoing inspiration is Guruji’s example of how to find freedom our given life.

Guruji gave us practices that clarified the heart and mind, rebuilding ourselves in ways that do not obstruct our deep spiritual intention.

Courtesy of Victoria Austin

Victoria Austin practicing Virabhadrasana II.

Courtesy: Iyengar Yoga Institute of San Francisco

Build Sankalpa Through Love and Community

By Deidra Demons

“Do not aim low, you will miss the mark. Aim high and you will be on the threshold of bliss.” –

B.K.S. Iyengar

“You are never really playing an opponent. You are playing yourself, your own highest standards, and when you reach your limits, that is real joy.”– Arthur

Ashe

Recently I saw an interview with Arthur Ashe. In all honesty I knew his name, but I didn’t know much about him. I was so excited to learn more about who he was. His story moved me to tears. I could absolutely sense how Arthur Ashe practiced sankalpa (intention) in his determination to act with integrity and love.

Born in 1943 in Richmond, Va., Arthur and his parents lived in the caretaker's cottage on the grounds of Richmond's largest Blacks-only public playground, which had basketball courts, four tennis courts, a pool and three baseball diamonds. Just before turning seven, he lost his mother, who died from complications of a toxemic pregnancy. He began playing tennis when he was seven.

By 1953, he was getting coaching from Dr. Robert Walter Johnson at the coach’s tennis summer-camp home in Lynchburg, Va. Johnson helped fine-tune Ashe's game and taught him the etiquette and composure that became an Ashe hallmark.

“They insisted that I be unfailingly polite on the court, unfalteringly calm and detached, so that whites could never accuse me of meanness. I learned well,” Ashe said of his mentors.* He accumulated a long list of firsts:

l He became the first Black person to win the National Junior Indoor tennis title. (At this time he also was awarded a full scholarship to the University of California, Los Angeles, graduating with a degree in business administration.)

l In 1968, Arthur became the first Black man to win the United States Amateur Champion ships. He won the first U.S. Open.

l The first Black man named to the Davis Cup team, Arthur helped the team become champions

in 1968 and 1969. He was team captain in 1981 and 1982.

l In 1975 Arthur defeated Jimmy Connors to win the Wimbledon singles title, the first and only Black man to win the most prestigious grasscourt tournament.

“True heroism is remarkably sober, very undramatic. It is not the urge to surpass all others at whatever cost, but the urge to serve others at whatever cost.”

– Arthur Ashe

Ashe started to serve others early in his career, co-founding the National Junior Tennis League, a program designed to expose children to tennis who might not otherwise have opportunities to play while fostering discipline and attention to academics.

Although he was ranked number one in the United States, apartheid South Africa refused him entrance to compete in 1969, launching his decades long activism against the South African Apartheid regime. In 1983, along with Harry Belafonte, he founded Artists and Athletes Against Apartheid.

In 1981 he served as national chairman of the American Heart Association.

In 1979 Arthur suffered a heart attack and underwent quadruple-bypass surgery, though he continued to suffer from chest pains afterward. In 1980 Arthur retired from tennis. His career record:

Los Angeles Times Photographic Archive, Library Special Collections, Charles

Young Research Library, UCLA

Arthur Ashe playing in the Southern California Sectional in Los Angeles, Calif., 1966

818 wins, 260 losses and 51 titles.

In 1988 Arthur was hospitalized after feeling numbness in his right hand. After many tests, it was revealed that he had HIV, and that he had contracted it from the blood transfusion he received after his second bypass surgery.

This incited a whirlwind of publicity and attention, which Arthur used to raise awareness about AIDS and its victims. Two months before his death, he founded the Arthur Ashe Institute for Urban Health to help address issues of inadequate health care delivery to urban minority populations. Arthur passed away February 6, 1993, from AIDS-related pneumonia.

“One important key to success is self-confidence. An important key to self-confidence is preparation.”

– Arthur Ashe

I just loved reading about the people in his life –his father, brother, and coaches who supported him. I could feel the community and love. I could also see how his loved ones, and his entire community practiced their own sankalpa by how they all worked together, determined to support Arthur throughout his journey. This is a great example of love.

I appreciate all of Arthur Ashe’s advice and words of wisdom about going for your dreams, what success really is and how to get it. His story is inspirational to me in my work and also in my life. I am so thankful to have learned more about his life, legacy, and his truly beautiful spirit.

Inspired by Arthur Ashe, I teach a class that explores the actions of twists. In the twisting poses we turn the abdomen, ribs, shoulders, chest, neck, head, and eyes. That rotation helps restore and maintain the spine’s natural range of motion and stretch the muscles on the back. In this class we learn the twisting actions by balancing the doing, the necessary effort, with letting go. The effort and dedication to lift the spine prepares us for twists, but the actual turning comes from letting go.

Just as hard work and perseverance are necessary for us to reach our goals, we also have to let go. Sometimes we are letting go of fear or doubt, or as Arthur Ashe states, we let go of a perceived importance of winning or losing and just go for it. F

https://arthurashe.ucla.edu/life-story/ Accessed Sept. 20, 2022.

https://www.sportscasting.com/how-tennis-icon-arthur-ashebecame-a-famous-example-of-sportsmanship/ Accessed Sept. 20, 2022.

https://andscape.com/features/this-doctors-prescription-forthe-game-changed-tennis/ Accessed Sept. 20, 2022.

All Arthur Ashe quotes from: https://thehabitstacker.com/arthur-ashe-quotes/ Accessed Sept. 20, 2022.

About the author: Deidra Demens is a certified Iyengar Yoga teacher based in Brooklyn, NY. A graduate of DePaul University’s acclaimed theater school, Deidra brings her grounding in performing arts to her yoga practice and instruction, with a fun yet thoughtful and comprehensive teaching style and dynamic and engaging classes. Through demonstration and detailed guidance, she seeks to challenge and inspire her students, while empowering them to make their practice their own. Deidra is also known for her ongoing Black History x Yoga photo series, where she shares moving and inspiring Black stories and interprets each as a yoga asana.

I could absolutely sense how Arthur Ashe practiced sankalpa (intention) in his determination to act with integrity and love.

Deidra Demons practicing Parsva Upavistha Konasana, 2022

Photo: Lindsay Monal

To Bring an Intention to the Heart: Practice

By Michael Lucey

A famous saying by seventeenth-century French philosopher and mathematician Blaise Pascal goes: “Le coeur a ses raisons que le raison ne connaît point.” In English: “The heart has its reasons, which reason does not know.” (Translation by Roger Ariew.) Some people take Pascal’s observation to mean that our emotional responses are irrational, or that our emotional responses have their own kind of logic that our brains might struggle to understand. But Pascal meant something different: Our reasoning faculty and our heart – whatever that is exactly – are different parts of our make-up and have different functions and different abilities.

Pascal specified that “the heart has its order; the mind has its own, which consists of principle and demonstration. The heart has another. We do not prove that we should be loved by displaying in order the causes of love. That would be absurd.” With our mental faculty for reasoning, we learn to take into account cause and effect; we accept convincing demonstrations; we agree that certain things have been established as true. But what Pascal refers to as our heart seems to proceed differently. It can be the locus of primary intuition, Pascal observes, and so it has a special relation to truth: “We know the truth, not only through reason, but also through the heart. It is through the latter that we know first principles, and reason, which has no part in it, tries in vain to challenge them.” According to Pascal, we feel certain fundamental things to be true. He gives as examples the experience of space and time. “Principles are felt, propositions are proved; all with certainty, though in different ways. And it is as useless and absurd for reason to demand from the heart proofs of its first principles before accepting them, as it would be for the heart to demand from reason an intuition of all demonstrated propositions before receiving them.” It is as if reason and the heart can never understand each other.

Yet this is where Pascal’s thinking becomes most intriguing. For Pascal, faith comes from the heart.

Does that mean it can never be taught? Or to pose a related question: how can we teach ourselves to act from the heart? The theme of this convention is Sankalpa, “a solemn vow, intention, resolution or determination formed in the heart or mind.” How is it that we could form something in our heart, a space of intuition and feeling? How could you convey heartfelt faith to someone through words, which seem to be instruments of reason? Pascal’s answer was, in a way, practice. That is, he understood that both reason and the heart were embodied, and he understood that it was because they were embodied that there might be a way they could communicate with each other. Because, for Pascal, we are a combination of body and mind, of matter and spirit, so we can accustom our body to certain things. This seems to provide a way of touching the heart, even of training it. Perhaps in our very first yoga class, the practice touched our heart without our knowing it, and in some way that touch is what encouraged us to continue. Perhaps we had good reasons in our mind for continuing too – reducing stress, improving fitness – but maybe the heart had its reasons too, even if it would take us time to discover them.

Michael Lucey demonstrating Parivrtta Trikonasana, 2019.

Courtesy: Adeline Yoga Studio, Berkeley, CA

Our reasoning faculty and our heart – whatever that is exactly – are different parts of our make-up and have different functions and different abilities.

The body is stubborn, the mind mercurial. Supposing, for example, you want to hold true to a vow. Your body might stubbornly resist. The mind might be an unreliable partner. You might have good reason for your vow, you might be easily convinced of the vow’s importance. Will that suffice to maintain it? Is convincing yourself (reasoning with yourself) over and over again enough? Pascal thinks not. “For always to have proofs before us is too much trouble. We must acquire an easier belief, which is that of habit, which, without violence, art, or argument, makes us believe things and inclines all our powers to this belief, so that our soul falls naturally into it.” It is too much trouble, he says, always to be convincing yourself of the importance of your vow in order to maintain it. We need something easier. But that “easier” support is probably, and paradoxically, harder to get to. It takes a lot of practice, a lot of habituation, to durably institute an inclination. To fall heart and soul into something isn’t a quick and easy thing. We touch the heart through skillful practice. But if we are going to practice skillfully, we need to practice practicing. Here is where a community of practice can be helpful, because a community is a space of shared custom.

Perhaps sometimes we are fortunate and an intention arises from our heart and easily finds its fulfillment in practice. But perhaps other times, an intention starts as a mental act, a good idea. To make it more fully ours, to bring it to our heart, requires embodying it, practicing it. So one goal we might have is to arrive at a practice that is rooted in the heart, but the road to that goal is the practice itself, a practice that not only discovers the heart but gives it form. We discover the heart as our sensitivity becomes refined through the practice of asana, pranayama, pratyahara, dharana and dhyana. When we are beginners at yoga, even the physical body is a place of confusion for us. But over time, along with understanding asanas, we might learn the names and functions of bones, joints, and muscles. We become informed about our bodies. At the same time, maybe even without realizing it, we gather information about subtler aspects of the embodiment, for instance about the emotional

effects, or the effects on our nervous system, of different sequences. If we follow that path, we can experience our practice as constructing a clearer and clearer mirror in which to perceive the reflection of the heart.

I haven’t been meaning to suggest any direct connection between Pascal and yoga, but sometimes thinkers from another time or place or another tradition entirely can offer an illuminating perspective. And so perhaps Pascal sheds some light on what we are doing here, at our convention: Practicing together so that we become practitioners who can find the reason for and the commitment to our practice in our hearts. F

About the author: Michael Lucey lives in San Francisco. He teaches yoga classes at Adeline Yoga Studio in Berkeley, and he is also a professor of French and Comparative Literature at the University of California, Berkeley. He was president of IYNAUS from 2014-2017.

Michael Lucey demonstrating Dwi Pada Viparita Dandasana, 2018.

Courtesy: Adeline Yoga Studio, Berkeley, CA

Perhaps in our very first yoga class, the practice touched our heart without our knowing it, and in some way that touch is what encouraged us to continue.

boy would quickly adapt to the married state because of their malleable mind matter. In late marriages, the mind becomes a concrete structure and a concrete structure cannot be shaped.

Economics was not a problem in that family system. There were lots of cushions, shock absorbers, and economic security as you had the family around. Now it is not there. And that is why life is not so smooth in the modern social setup. So, in deciding about one’s career at an unripe age, many of them later notice that they had decided to do something but now feel that should have done something else in life. I have opted for this profession, but now I am not fit for it. That is the case with many people these days.

So the sankalpa or determination that is made at that age is made in a premature condition. One is not fit to decide about life at that age. So there should be a support system where the person is secure. Therefore decisions can be taken later about what could be the course of life. But, in present dynamics it is not possible, you have to decide your future in the first quarter for the next three quarters of your life.

And this is something that is not going well in life today. The point is: In life today we make decisions out of the fervor of a young age. Out of exuberance of energy at that age, people decide on what they should be doing in their life. So, planning takes place prematurely. A prematurely born child is always a problem, and a prematurely decided course of life can also become a problem of the same

magnitude. This is what is happening today because of the present social structure, social economic structure.

RM: For some people, the decision that they take for their course of life is smooth, but some realize that this is not what they should be doing. They want to change their course but are worried of being labeled as failures – someone who could not stick to what they decided to do.

PI: We had elders in the house as a support system. The parents would read the children better than the children could read themselves. So a good support system in the house – the parents, uncles, the elderly persons would always identify the potentials in the child, and they would assist the boy or girl to decide about what they should do.

Today, because of the education system that we have, even the school-going children become selfassertive, and they feel they are fit to decide about their life. They don’t have a proper support system in the family, maybe just their father and mother but that is not sufficient. There should be a generation before the parents’ generation - grandparents, granduncles. There should be elderly persons who have gone through life and understand what life is; they can envisage and foresee life because they have gone through the first quarter, second quarter, third quarter of life. This young generation has not even completed the first quarter. The guiding force is not there. The family system support was there for laukika vyavahara – practicality of life.

Now to put it a little bluntly, imagine a grandfather or grandmother at this juncture and imagine grandparents about two, three generations back. The grandparents then were much more involved with the dynamics of life, conditions of life, comprehension of life. Not the grandparents of our generation because they have spent their whole life on material gratification. Maybe grandparents were already job holders. They were doing some jobs and they were not so familiar with domestic dynamics. For instance today: The father goes to a job, and the

Interview with Prashant S. Iyengar .... cont. from page 13

Prashant Iyengar teaching Tadasana at the B.K.S. Iyengar Centenary Celebration in Pune, 2018.

Shael Sharma

Photo: Shael Sharma

mother goes to a job; so the parents are not well versed in the domestic dynamics. They only have children, and they try to take care of the children, but for the upbringing of children you just can’t have only parents. You need to have elder siblings, brothers and sisters, and elderly persons, uncles and aunties in the house. A well-knit family is necessary rather than the nuclear family system of our times.

So the fact of the matter is the grandparents in India today do not even know the stories of Ramayana and Mahabharata. Two, three generations back, they were well versed with stories from Ramayana and Mahabharata, so they could be a guiding force to the new generation in the house. Now you ask the parents or grandparents to tell the stories from Ramayana and Mahabharata and they themselves are not aware of the stories. This is a sorry state of affairs in India. All over, materialism has spread to such an extent that we are not able to have a family system which is resourceful in all aspects, not only economically, but also in wisdom aspects. We would seek advice of elderly people. The younger generation feels that the older generation is outdated. Therefore they would not like to take advice from them because they are better educated and they know better. Look at the older people in our times vs. earlier times – the older generation people were wiser and had qualities needed for domestic dynamics, family dynamics and personal dynamics.

RM: Would it not have been the same earlier? The younger generation would have felt that they know more than the older?

PI: The younger generation may feel they are ahead. But, how are they ahead? Fact of the matter is that the present generation is always ahead of the earlier generation. But why? Because they were mounted on the elders’ shoulders. If they had not lent their shoulders, then they would not have advanced. The present generation will always be better than the earlier generation, especially technically. But, the younger generation will not know what is the old person’s life. Old person knows old person’s life. So, somewhere there is dearth of knowledge and dearth of vision in youngsters, although somewhere they have better vision with the technological improvement taking place over 200-300 years.

In our Oriental system, the family system was not just that you had parents, sisters and brothers and cousins around you, but that the wisdom resource was greater.

RM: Can one say that the definition of success was not just financial?

PI: It was not material. So success in life is something else. Because materially one might be accomplished in life but still be miserable. This can be experienced, this can be testified and verified. Materially one might be well-to-do but that does not mean that the person is contented and accomplished in life. There may be lot of miseries. Human life is not just about material resources available to you. We need so many other resources for enriching our lives. At present, life has become more and more materialistic, with one only looking for prospects in life. What are these prospects? It’s only economical conditions and social status. You must have a good social status. You must have good economic status. We do not see anything besides that and that’s why life becomes miserable later in the third and fourth quarter of life or sometimes even the second quarter of life. If you have decided in the first quarter that you are going to be this and you will do this only, then it misfires. Life is not flexible once you have decided.

RM: You mention that life is not flexible when you are decided. It is not just about course of life but routine activities when you have decided. But at a point you may have to change paths. Then, this can be understood as not being determined. But, on the other hand, you may have to be realistic and change paths.

PI: You have some advantages in being decided and you have certain disadvantages in not being decided. So, you can be decided about certain aspects in life. But certain aspects in life will surface when you face the situation. There is an open architecture for life. You do not know, you do not foresee what is in store for you, so with respect to that, you must have flexibility in you.

What is to be decided is not in the material gravity of life, but you should be decided in the principles of life. So you need to be decided and decisive on what principles you are going to adhere to in life. This you can get from the older generation, by looking at the history of mankind, history of your family, your geneology, and the society in which you live. You have to be decided on certain principles which are so important for you, that even if it costs you in the material realm, it should not prick you, it should not pinch you. You should be happy to be able to tread on the path of principles. That is, being Interview, cont. on page 44

decided on an ideal in life, principle in life, the pole star aspects, the radar for life. If you have materialistic goals, then you have to be flexible because if you earned 1000 rupees per month 35-40 years ago, but then if you are going to live for another thirty to forty years, millennials, you will need to earn multi-thousands, multi-lakhs.

So as times change, material goals change. Material goal is always a mirage and then you are going after a mirage. Then, life is fatiguing. You know what happens to human life if you are running after a mirage. In the material realm you cannot have that goal fixed because the material needs will change. So today a boy will aspire for a four-wheeler when he is just 18, 19, 20. And then a time will come when he will be looking for a limousine, not just any fourwheeler. Goals are always pushed in the modern socio-economic pattern. Goals are not fixed, and therefore you will always be tiring yourself chasing goals. But principles are steady; the principles don’t change. To decide on principles, give importance to values in life. We have lost the value system. The value system is so important. A couple of generations ago, the value system was available.

Now, we have showcases in our houses for consumable commodities; then, we had showcases for values. And, the elderly people helped us imbibe and inculcate the values. When you have values with you, you don’t need material prosperity. If it comes, well and good; if it doesn’t come, it doesn’t eclipse your life.

So we should be well decided on the course of life based on principles which are based on eternal values and not transitory values. Today the value system has gone from our education system.

RM: To summarize, we can have a sankalpa of what we want to do in life but it should be superseded by the principles of life. If you have to compromise your principles to achieve your goals, then it should not be done…

PI: Then it will bring misery in life. Not only will it bring misery to you, but it will bring misery to all the people around you, because of your kind of determination, because of your kind of rigidity and dogma.

RM: How do we get children to inculcate the values?

PI: Today, life has lots of attractions and that becomes a major factor for your decisions. These attractions are like a mirage, and that’s why they don’t have constant values. The problem in today’s life is that there are many things that are enticing. Now, today’s infant gets fascinated by a tablet or a smart phone and wants to start watching videos because things are available and it is more attractive. So, these things will happen because of the developments that mankind is making in the last 300 years, trying to make men happy by certain enticements of sensory gratifications. So, it is very difficult today to go by principles in life. When we were children, there were ordinary toys made up of wood and rubber and we were happy. We were not cranky for electronic games and such toys. Today, tablets have become a toy that a child grabs and starts operating on his own. Materialism has grown out of proportion. Therefore we need a value system in the family or available somewhere in society. Somebody has to show what is real and what is seemingly real. That is why we must be going toward wisdom. Wisdom has been constant. Wisdom doesn’t change. Knowledge changes from generation to generation, but wisdom is constant for thousands of years.

But how will you start inculcating values in children? It has to start in society, not only in the education system. Today, there are a lot of double standards. Parents may have double standards –what they tell children and what they do differs. Parents conceal so many things from children. They have to conceal so many things from children as these cannot be done openly. Life has become complex because materialism has grown out of proportion. We have not really brought in that masala, mixture, of eternal values which should have come in small quantum. That is enough. We don’t need a full meal. It can be a side dish in your meal, but we are losing it. The enticements are increasing day by day and that has led to mismanagement of our lives.

The point is that there should be some things by which values are recognized. Children who are at a malleable age, impressionable age, should be exposed to values rather than to attractions in life. Their delights lie in something else. We have to do

We should be clear; the teacher should give a proper direction about what you have to learn and the value behind it. The values will be eternal; the effects will not be eternal. The effects come and go.

something today to give importance to values not only in education but also in the social setup where the values become something like a showcase item. So they have to be drawn towards values.

We don’t have to worry about 100 percent of society or 90 percent of society. We have to bother about only 5 to 10 percent of society. That is enough. Otherwise we will have lot of negativity. It will not work. There are so many problems. So we should not target 100 percent of society. If even 5 to 10 percent exhibit the value system, it will work. You cannot expect the whole generation to be adhering to values, but even if a few adhere, it is a start. This is how we should start. Everything starts in a very small way. The river at the origin is just a small stream, but then see how the river becomes by the time it reaches the sea. So look at any origin of the river: Water dribbles in small quantities and then goes on to become the massive river.

RM: So, when children start with yoga for six to eight years, the most malleable years of their life, then is that effect seeping into them? Is it true?

PI: It is true, but the parents also have a responsibility, elders have a responsibility. They just cannot send the children to a yoga class. They should also restrain themselves. My child is going to yoga class, and I also should be reformed. Parents cannot expect that their children are going to a yoga class, and they would inculcate values. Children will also imbibe what they see at home. So, parents should not only send their children to yoga class, but they too should attend. That is important. So the child will be better motivated to continue as their parents are also doing it.

So generations have to practice these values. Then it will grow like a river grows from its source till it becomes wide and huge.

So coming to yoga, sankalpa in yoga – you should be decided. You know that yoga is a value system so you must know what really yoga is. If your idea or concept of yoga is that it is for physical fitness and mental fitness only then it is going to evaporate. Because that is not true yoga.

Yoga, as it comes in the classical form, should touch practitioners. Otherwise, misconceptions get set in concrete. Then you have to break them, and that is a very difficult task. So, introduce the proper idea, proper notion to the practitioners as early as possible and not at a delayed point of time when

they get set in their thinking. We must push certain values and not just practices. What will you practice? You will practice what you want to do, what you can do or what is possible for you. If not possible, why will you practice? If it is not giving you what you want, why will you practice? So the consumer aspect in yoga should be quickly changed like the trains change their tracks at the station, because if they don’t change the tracks, they will never reach the destination. Change the track about the concept, notion and idea of yoga. If you don’t change, then you will go in the wrong direction, then the destination will be to a bhoga (indulgence) destination.

So, in yoga we should be determined to learn whatever we should be learning at our stage of life. Certain things you have to get, and to get those things we must be determined. But then you will realize that even if you are getting these things, life conditions are such that certain things will go away. Because they are ephemeral. So, what you get in your youth – those things will slowly be going away as you age. Ephemeral things are going to go away, but that doesn’t mean that yoga is going to go away. So if your idea of yoga is proper, then it really doesn’t matter whether you continue to be a fit person. If you say yoga is for your fitness, that means you get an idea or a notion that if you do yoga, you will be fit all the time. Now your fitness depends on so many factors. If those factors are not in place, then how are you going to have your fitness in place? Yoga is not for fitness, or yoga is not only for fit people. Such notions should not be there; otherwise you will quickly realize that yoga is not what you thought it was. You will be disillusioned

Children practicing Malasana at the B.K.S. Iyengar Centenary Celebration in Pune, 2018.

Photo: Shael Sharma

if you have the illusion that yoga is for fitness, and then despite yoga, you are not keeping well.

Yoga cannot take care of all that. The yoga that you are doing cannot take care of everything that is influencing your life. We should be clear; the teacher should give a proper direction about what you have to learn and the value behind it. The values will be eternal; the effects will not be eternal. The effects come and go.

So in yoga you must be determined about doing yoga. Guruji gave us this lesson: Come what may, he would not let go, he would not compromise. It is very difficult to stick to the good principles. Life is such that you will be distracted or you will feel you have done enough. So although you have decided with respect to the principles – come what may, you also should know that it is all open architecture. You should be open to unforeseen conditions because nobody knows what is in store for tomorrow. So you must know this reality. You must be open minded. You should have flexibility along with rigidity. Rigidity to stick to principles, but flexibility to accept the impending conditions. The impending conditions should not come as a bomb shell to you. Therefore, you should have this proper blend of flexibility and rigidity. Guruji used to refer to something as a pole star, but even with the pole star, you are rotating, you are moving in space. Once you leave that space you will never come back to the same space. That’s the reality.

But yet there is a pole star and that’s why the concept of pole star was given: So wherever you are, you are facing the pole star. Whichever condition you

are in, you are facing the pole star. You are moving in life, but in line with the cosmos; you will never be stationary in any position. So that is what the principle does.

You can go anywhere, but the cord is always with the principle. And then life will not be miserable at all, and then there will be a more contented life.

RM: There is a very fine line between determination and stubbornness. So, I may feel that I am very determined, but people around me may feel I am stubborn.

PI: This reading by others is going to be variegated. That is not important. That's why we have a concept in the wonderful Upanishad called Shiva Sankalpa Upanishad Shiva means piety, purity, sanctity. You must have sankalpa with respect to something which is shiva - that is pure, pious, sanctious. Every verse of the Upanishad ends with shiva sankalpamastu – “with noble intent”. So we have a concept in spiritual pursuit called shiva sankalpam

“I want to be comfortable in life” is not a shiva sankalpam. “I want to be prosperous in my life” is not shiva sankalpam. So what is auspiciousness? Your sankalpa should be regarding something that is auspicious. Then it is worthwhile. Even if you lose a battle there, yet you are not losing it. You are not a loser because you have shiva sankalpam in you. Because you cannot accomplish everything in life, but life is just a bubble in our existence. So the shiva sankalpam concept is there in the spiritual pursuit.

Don’t try to make resolutions in material aspects of life, which are ephemeral, like a mirage. How long can you hold onto sand in your fist? It won’t stay. Materialism is something like sand: You cannot be grabbing onto it, holding onto it in your fist too long. It will slip away. The tighter you hold it, you will lose some. Ten percent is gone by tightening the fist. By loose fist also you will lose. By tight fist also you will lose. There is no point in holding on to sand. So materialistic life is something like holding on to sand.

Shiva sankalpam is important in yogic pursuit and spiritual pursuit. Your life may not be successful, but maybe you are accomplished in your life. Where is the accomplishment? It is not in what status you attain. Accomplishment is within your heart. You have to feel your accomplishment.

In the material realm, others will declare that you

Prashant Iyengar teaching Utthita Trikonasana at the B.K.S. Iyengar Centenary Celebration in Pune, 2018. Interview, cont. from page 45

Photo: Shael Sharma

are accomplished. But the person says “I am not accomplished”. Why? There is no contentment in his heart. Contentment in the heart is important in human life. Not contentment of the brain nor contentment of the passion-based instruments of our mind, psyche. It is the heart which should be contented.

RM: Sir, you say that we should not have sankalpa on materialistic things as they are a mirage, but we should have sankalpa on principles. For an ordinary man, principles are abstract, so objective things always tend to come up. So, somebody may make a sankalpa – “I will practice regularly at 8 am, come what may!” Now this turns into rigidity.

PI: This is the matter of becoming in life. When the becoming is taking place, such cases will be there. Suppose food is getting cooked – when it is half cooked, you should not be eating it. If you eat it then, there is a problem. You will not be able to eat with relish. So when life is becoming a spiritual pursuit, there is always such a stage. And that is there in any aspect of life when something is becoming. It is not relish-able. It is not attractive; it is not good in any condition. Half-cooked rice will give you a stomach ache. It is not good to eat it, and having eaten, you will get a stomach ache. So even on the yogic path there is a stage of becoming, and there is a condition, a phase that you cannot bypass. And, of course, then you will have that problem, that somebody will say you are stubborn. You may be dogmatic. You yourself might be stubborn for you, you will say, “I did not react properly.” But then for the sake of value, still you are working. So why bother about the assessment of people about you.

We should not be trying to be excellent every time in worldly assessment. Then you will all the time be compromising principles. Unless you compromise principles, the world will never say you are a nice person.

RM: Sometimes, people state: “come what may, I will not change.” Sometimes, we become rigid toward conditions rather than getting the essence.

PI: Yes. Yes that is negative. That is typical of human life. Human life doesn’t go by tendencies. All the sub-humans go by tendencies. Suppose a dog is hungry and wants to eat; it will not bother about decency, whether it is the right time or what the other dogs will feel. What other people will feel around me? It is the tendency, but human life is such, and therefore it is going to be negative in

some sense. Some dimension of it will always be discredited. You cannot say that I should be good to everyone, every time, all the time, everywhere, anywhere. Human life is like that. We don’t go by tendencies like the dogs and cats, who don’t bother about who is around. We, human beings, will not be able to do that. We have the conditions where we have karma yonis and therefore we have vyavhasahic buddhi [knowledge, intelligence about the profession]. We have to decide, and of course something negative may turn out of it, and we have to accept it.

So when you are preparing chapati; from raw, it goes roasted. Rice, first you go to half cooked condition, then to fully cooked condition. There is no direct way of going to a fully cooked condition. There is a process. Karma dynamics are always like that. Something will not be palatable or something may not be acceptable to people around you; say your siblings or society around you. They will definitely remark around you. But, so what? This is how human life is made up.

When you are disciplined, many people will not like it.

RM: I get this aspect of discipline where you are not bothered what people say because your conscience says that you are doing the right thing. On the other hand, people talk about commitments and not wavering from that. I remember once Pandu mentioning that a lady had committed to attend classes few years in advance. Now things had changed, she had a baby, but she was so disciplined that she did come, leaving the 3-month-old baby for a month with her husband. In another incident, a lady was very committed to her practice. She came right through her pregnancy and once she delivered, she was back in class with her 6-day-old infant! I do not know whether I am right or wrong, but I feel that their commitment should be more toward the baby over their determination. To me, it was rigidity, but in that person’s mind, it was their determination.

PI: That is why you have an advantage in the path

Accomplishment is within your heart. You have to feel your accomplishment. Others don’t say that you are accomplished.

of yoga. You develop a conscience, and of course the conscience will always make you take a decision which is based on the gravity of value. So, these mothers as students of yoga should know that my duty is towards my child as per my value system. Somebody is ill in the house; you cannot come to class. I have said many times, you have done a wrong thing by attending the class. So somebody needed attention back home, and it was your duty to do that. So you have done inferior yoga at the cost of superior yoga. You should have been there. So this conscience is developed. That is why Guruji often used to bring up this concept of dharmendriya [organs of righteousness]; that it must be developed. So the conscience, this is what the complication of human psyche is. You have a goal on one side; you have determination on one side; you have conscience on one side. So you become duty minded. What is my duty now? This is more important than generally my duty. What generally I would have done now is one thing, but because of the contingencies what should I be doing now?

So this discretion will come. Why is this discretion required if you are determined to do? That means you are already in the gravity; that means you are drawn in the gravity; then why do you need discretion. Yoga doesn’t allow. So discretion is a matter developed by yoga. Conscience is developed by yoga. So, you are able to reconcile with life.

If I am determined to do pranayama everyday at 4 o’clock; your conscience will tell you today 4 o’clock is not right because your father is in the hospital because of an emergency. So I am not compromising on my value. I am only compromising on my

determination because of a better gravity. I use my discretion, judiciousness, conscience, which are important aspects of a human psyche. You will not see conscientious in sub-humans, mosquito conscientious, fly conscientious. Human beings are conscientious. So we are given all these faculties within us. Yoga will give us a balance – it involves with the balance and therefore you will make right decisions in your life.

RM: Now coming to asana practice, at some point, people may start becoming rigid not physically but mentally about doing things in a specific manner. How do we get people to move on?

PI: That’s why this education is needed in yoga. Education is a guiding force for you. Without this education you will not be in the path of yoga at all. Yoga is not a technocentric field, that you know the technique of it, then you perfect the technique of it. People are becoming technocentric, and there is no education. That is why I felt the need of education in yoga, so that you have your own discretion, your own judgment, judicious. I cannot say what is judicious for all those who are around me. So you have to develop all these faculties through education in yoga. It is not just the practice, education about life, and education about embodiment – that this embodiment is not static. You can start your car anytime. The car doesn’t say, why at 2:30 a.m. are you starting me? You start anytime it will be ready to go.

So education about human embodiment will tell you that you must have a flexible scheme, you must have open architecture. So whatever is the architecture, the pole star is always up north. You can decide that your house is facing north. It can be any architecture. It has to be open architecture. Life is open architecture. It is not techno-centric. How to make this device, it is technocentric. You draw a circuit diagram and accordingly this will be done. But our life is not like that. Our body is not like that. It doesn’t have a circuit diagram. It is a living thing. It will have to assemble only in this way. That is not the case here. How will I assemble my system in

Prashant and Geeta Iyengar in conversation at the B.K.S. Iyengar Centenary Celebration in Pune, 2018.

Interview, cont. from page 47

Shael Sharma

Photo: Shael Sharma

winter, summer, dry weather, wet weather, change of conditions, change of internal conditions, change of surroundings. So many things have to be considered. We have to be open to this nature. We are a part of this nature and we have a nature within us. We have come from nature and that is why we have to have a mind set. We cannot be techno-centric of this embodiment.

RM: There were many things which we learned by just observing in childhood. We were not taught but we learned. On the other hand, there were classes in moral education, but we did not learn. So, how does one transmit the value system to the public. We cannot list it out. What role does practice play?

PI: Generally the value system is transmitted by our epics, puranas (legends) and itihas (history). That should be going on on one side. These are enormous wisdom resources, such as the Mahabharata, which is not just a history of what happened 5000 years back. It is an encyclopedia of wisdom and so it is still valid today. Like the Bhagavad Gita, which was given 5000 years back and is still valid today. In a particular scenario, when Arjuna says, please tell me once again after the battle is over. Krishna says no, no way, I cannot do it. I will give you the gist of it, but don’t expect that I will be enacting the same thing and telling you. But it is eternal. He said, ok, I will give you a gist of it. That Gita is still working. Arjuna says please tell me once again, as I was in the turmoil of battle. Krishna says no way. So, he gave another text called anuGita which comes in the Mahabharata

So for the general public, we have enormous resources like the gospels of sages, saints; we have a galaxy of rishis and munis – sages – in our country. This is how values have to be given to the general public. We don’t need to tell them: value 1, value 2, etc. Let them just be told about it in a story form for the children in the school. So we don’t tell Mahabharata commentary by Madhavacharya, but teach them as stories.

So generally this is how it should be done. Those who are in the spiritual pursuit in the subject of yoga have better conditions for education. As I have said, “You start yoga at a point in time, but when the yoga starts is a different point in time.” How the yoga will start, Sadhana Pada beautifully mentions. You should be familiar with the metaphysics, philosophy, the truth about life, truth about human life. So that is what the second chapter tells us.

Those are the means. At some stage the means have to come. On the first day, you cannot say that I will give you the means of yoga. You will have to give some practices of yoga. That is how you have to go about. But at some stage, at the right point in time, before it is too delayed, it should be done.

RM: To me, if we were to take Guruji’s example. He was the most determined person, but the most fluid and adaptable at the same time.

PI: That is the appearance form of Guruji. What is the appearance form of the sun? You just see the light coming. Do you see the various energy forms coming? What is apparent is the physical form of the sun. It is such a bright star and it has enormous heat. And that’s why we saw the apparent form of Guruji and got dazzled, and when you are dazzled, you are blind. You don’t see what has to be seen. You should be knowing. Therefore, you have to develop insight about what Guruji is, to be understood by thought and not just by vision of the eyes. It is not just by vision of the eyes and your empirical experience about him.

So that’s why I said about essential yoga, there is much to hear. What you can do is very little, limited – pointless to prove. Every one knows what we can do is a paltry bit. But to know about yoga, it has to be heard. You have resources to hear about yoga. Eternal texts are there; across various millennia, the texts have been written. So we get to know how yoga has come through, and how the values have stayed and what has happened to values today.

To end, to create determination, create a good foundation for it. Unless you have a good database, you don’t go for data selection and processing, etc., you collect data. So collect a lot of foundation about yoga and then later you determine and decide. F

About the interviewer: Rajvi Mehta has been a student of Guruji B.K.S. Iyengar for more than four decades, and she is the editor of Yoga Rahasya since its inception.

“If I had only a single herb to depend upon for all possible health and dietary needs, I would without much hesitation choose the Indian spice turmeric." Dr. David Frawley (Vamadeva Shastri)

Radhika Ponda (CIYT) is the founder of Mt. Meru Medicines

Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and Justice.

cont. from page 4

Our work includes educating our community about how to become more aware of and sensitive to the needs of people of different backgrounds, so outreach is effective. It includes educating our community about how to examine and respond to the biases that living in a racially segregated and unequal society have engendered in us, regardless of our intentions. These biases affect our behavior and the quality of our connections with other people.

In the past few years, people have become more keenly aware of persistent inequity in the U.S. among different racialized groups. In 2020, George Floyd, though arrested for a very minor crime and not resisting, was murdered on camera by a police officer. This happened with other police officers standing by and a crowd of bystanders pleading for his life.

As a result of this shocking and horrifying event, many people of all backgrounds became aware of the extent to which Black people in particular, as well as other racial and ethnic groups, face very different conditions than white people in the United States. They are arrested and imprisoned, and face violence by police in far greater proportions, even controlling for other factors. In each major system of our society – education, banking, healthcare, housing, and justice, outcomes for Black people as well as for other racial/ethnic groups are much worse than for white people, regardless of factors like income and education level. Other intersecting personal identities and characteristics, including sexuality, gender identity, mental health status, etc., also have a big impact on these conditions and outcomes. Historical inequalities have led to present-day disparities.

IYNAUS, like many organizations in the United States and around the world, put out a statement after George Floyd’s murder, decrying racism and committing to be part of the solution, saying: “Let us stress our unequivocal stance against racism, violence and oppression. Every person has the right to feel safe, respected and valued, both on and off the mat. Let our yoga practice offer us a path forward.”

Guruji emphasized that no progress in yoga could be made without faithful observation of Yama (ethical restraints) and Niyama (self-purification practices). He wrote:

“These ethical precepts are always with us from the beginning to the end of the yoga journey, for the demonstration of one’s spiritual realization lies in none other than how one walks among and interacts with one’s fellow human beings.”(Light on Life, p10)

There isn’t one way for practitioners to grapple with these circumstances. Guruji exhorted us not to force our view of morality on others and to avoid counting ourselves as superior to anyone else. Not everyone will come to the same understanding or decide to take the same action at the same time. As a community, we can support the growth of individuals at a rate appropriate for them and help all avoid helplessness and despair in the face of challenging information.

IYNAUS must work with sensitivity, awareness, and skill to avoid participating in harm, to find ways to increase diversity and inclusion in Iyengar Yoga, and to educate our community about racialized harm. As a Yoga community, Iyengar Yoga in the U.S. can provide opportunities for practitioners to form community for positive work in the face of these troubling circumstances and to support the kind of investigation and analysis that will lead to growth and liberation from habits of mind that limit our awareness and keep us in ignorance.

Please join us in this work! Email: equitychair@iynaus.org to volunteer. F

Committee members:

Megan Bowles, Co-chair

Hector Jairo Martinez, Co-chair

Stephanie Perry-Bush, Equity and inclusion officer

Claudia Kuhns

Stephanie Lavender

Kathy Morris

Theresa St. John-Seigel

Alixe Steinmetz

IYACSR

would like to recognize the Southern Region Iyengar Yoga centers and IYACSR member certified teachers. With their steadfast sankalpa, Iyengar Yoga thrives.

Iyengar Yoga Centers in San Diego

B.K.S. Iyengar Yoga Center

4869 Santa Monica Ave N, San Diego

Mary Obendorfer & Eddy Marks

https://www.sandiegoyoga.com

Full Circle Yoga

3910 El Cajon Blvd., San Diego

Sunny & Aman Keays

http://www.fullcircleyoga.net

Iyengar Yoga Source

11526 Sorrento Valley Road, Suite E, San Diego

Carolyn Belko

https://www.iyengaryoga-source.com

Iyengar Yoga with Gloria

2367 Primrose Ave., Vista

Gloria Goldberg

http://gloriagoldberg.com

San Marcos Yoga

801 Grand Ave #4, San Marcos

Kathleen Quinn

https://sanmarcosyoga.com

Yoga Arts

3017 Cañon St., San Diego

Stephanie Lavender

https://yogaarts.co

IYACSR Certified Teachers

Julie Adler

Aida Amirkhanian

Laura Baker

Carolyn Belko

Candis Berens

Andrea Bottyan

Kelly Bowen

Patrick Carroll

Dina Chalom

Shelley Choy

Peg Cleve

Roger Cole

Cyndy Cordle

Betty Courtney

Deanna Cramer

Sheri Cruise

Christina de la Fuente

Royal Fraser

Tamera Gingerella

Gloria Goldberg

Shiri Goldsmith

Kathy Goodman

Daniel Guida

Judy Handler

Judith Harper

Jenny Hartman

Dora Hasenbein

Tina Jen

Aman Keays

Sunny Keays

Kim Kolibri

Srivarada Kota

Stephanie Lavender

Kiha Lee

Anthony Lorenzana

Barbara Lyon

Eddy Marks

Sharon Maruca

Nina Mathews

Pat McLoughlin

Rachel Mullane

Linda Nishio

Mary Obendorfer

Mary Osborn

Becky Patel

Sonya Perry

Nancy Phillips

Radhika Ponda

Kathleen Quinn

Scott Radin

Joanne Redoble

Ann Richards

Patricia Romero

Edith Rosenberg

Lisa Ruby

Steve Salkin-Krucker

Todd Semo

Suzanne Simon

Suneel Sundar

Bonnie Szumski

Katharyn Taylor

Chere Thomas

Claire Van Ryswyk

Stanley Williams

Courtney Yezzi

Courtesy: IYNAUS Archives

T hank you to Sponsors & Vendors

IC23 would like to thank the Town & Country Resort, especially Thomas Bisesi, for partnering with us again, ten years later, at the beautiful new hotel and conference resort.

SPONSORS

Banyan Botanicals

Dr. Bronner Magical Soaps

Iyengar Yoga Association California Southern Region

Mt. Meru Medicines

Pine Tree Yoga Props, LLC

Yoga Mart

VENDORS

5-Day Marketplace: May 15-19, 2023 in Town & Country A*

Ame Yoga/Ame Yoga Clothing – clothing

Arctic Malas – yoga beads F Direct Source – yoga props

IYNAUS Store – yoga props,educational

Mt. Meru Medicines – wellness F Parvati Productions – educational

PineTree YogaProps– yoga props F Prim & Prop – yoga props

Read and Yoga – educational F Third EyeThreads – clothing

HOURS OPEN

Monday 12-5pm

Tuesday 6:30-8 am, 11 am-3 pm, 5-7 pm

Friday 6:30-8 am, 11 am-3 pm, 5-7 pm

*See map on page 54 for location.

Convention Schedule

Archives Display

Archives display in Palm 1, 2 and 3.

Prop Storage

Prop storage will be secured in Town & Country Salon D. It will be open 30 minutes before and after classes for attendees to gather and store their props.

Town and Country San Diego

Sincerely,

“With help in the forms of

a student

– B.K.S. IYENGAR

Left: Portland convention, 2010; right: preparing for the San Diego convention, 2023.

Photo: Todd Semo

Courtesy: Pine Tree Yoga Props