Communal Dedication to the memory of Guruji B. K. S.

Communal dedication to the memory of Guruji B. K. S. Iyengar on Tuesday, August 26, 2014

 Photo by Kevin Mason
Tuesday night I attended a beautiful gathering at BKS Iyengar Yoga Studio in Dallas. Here is what I remember, you know when yoga teacher and parole violation are used in the same sentence it's a classic George story.

Beautiful Chanting led by Tatyana Wagner:

 invocation then guru mantra

Practice

Tadasana - 3 minutes
Uttanasana
Adho Mukha Svanasana
Utthita Trikonasana to the right and to the left
Adho Mukha Svanasana
Uttanasana
Tadasana - 3 minutes

5 minutes seated quietly

3 people spoke who had met Guruji:

Prakash:

 He had asthma and 3 senior teachers helped him and in 2 yrs it went away, but he then started suffering from severe eczema so he asked Guruji about it when he was in Pune and Guruji immediately told him 45 min Sirsasana and 45 min Sarvangasana – he starting building up and was doing 20-25 min and it went away

George Purvis:

 His first teacher Dan learned yoga while in prison, an iyengar teacher had come bu teaching in the prisons, he would ask things like what do you do when you can do Trikonasana with your hand on the floor and Dan would say you start moving the hand further from your foot, Dan was arrested for violating parole and George was the best student so he started teaching, 

 In 1980 George saw in Yoga Journal an advertisement for a Feathered Pipe Ranch retreat with Judith Lasater, Ramanand Patel and Victor van Kooten. Judith Lasater was pregnant and was unable to travel but Ramanand and Victor's teachings changed everything. On returning to Dallas, George told his students to forget everything Dan had said and forget everything he had said they were starting over

the first time George was around guruji was in San Francisco in 1984 for the first International Iyengar Yoga Convention.

Guruji came to dallas and stayed with George. All the teachers taught in front of Guruji, Herb Mcdonald went first and couldn’t get 2 words out without Guruji correcting so George went 3^rd so knew about 10 things not to do, he had been trembling on the way there just thinking about teaching in front of him but once he started he was calm, he taught Uttanasana and said ‘keep your arms straight’ and guruji came over and quietly told him keeping their arms straight will deplete their energy so he said ‘don’t keep your arms straight, it will deplete your energy’ .

George then went to Pune the next month and experienced a different Guruji that time, Guruji told him ‘you are the strongest one here but you are crooked’.

Gilberto Degado: 

He attended the Ann Arbor 3 day intensive in 1976, Guruji was very happy because there were 100 people attending, Guruji made everyone there a teacher and Gilberto said most were extremely raw students

Tatyana led the chant:

                                                      Saha Navavatu

AUM saha navavatu, saha nau bhunaktu
Saha veeryam karvaavahai
Tejasvi naa vadhita mastu
maa vid vishaa va hai
AUM shaantih, shaantih, shaantih. 

Meaning of the Sahanavavatu Mantra

Let us together (-saha) be protected (-na vavatu) and let us together be nourished (-bhunaktu) by God's blessings. Let us together join our mental forces in strength (-veeryam) for the benefit of humanity (-karvaa vahai). Let our efforts at learning be luminous (-tejasvi) and filled with joy, and endowed with the force of purpose (-vadhita mastu). Let us never (-maa) be poisoned (-vishaa) with the seeds of hatred for anyone. Let there be peace and serenity (-shaantih) in all the three universes.

–

then:

 the bhagavad gita shloka 9.27

yatkaroshi yadashnaasi yajjuhoshi dadaasi yata |
yattapasyasi kaunteya tatkurushva madarpanam || 27 ||

Whatever you do, whatever you eat, whatever you offer in a sacrifice, whatever you donate, whatever you practice as penance, O Kaunteya, offer it to me.