Day7 Geetaji gives us gifts on her birthday

  Pune and this habit I have of breathing are a very bad combination. Smells like smoke, hazy with smoke your skin feels like its coated with it, not ash, but a film of smoke, and then we passed people running in a marathon this morning on the way to the intensive, I wanted to tell them to go home right now or I would tell their mother, this is not healthy to be sucking this into your lungs for 26 mi

Marathoner

and then the intensive....

Happy birthday to you, happy birthday to you, happy birthday dear Geeta, happy birthday to you

Abhi, Rajvi and Geetaji

Abhi, Rajvi and Geetaji

 Geetaji's birthday started this am with a Surprise!! Children from Pune and Mumbai came in to be taught yoga. So on Geetaji's birthday she started giving...she gave to these children an amazing fun class, she gave to us the ability to watch this incredible 70 yr old yogini teach a childrens class. 'Watch the teachers first do you think they can do, if they can't do I will give them a zero, you can do better than the teachers' 'Lift the arms like wings, when the bird takes flight they really lift their wings high, lift your wings'...phenominal

 Then there was a 30 minute break, and on her birthday she returned and continued to give to us, she taught over 1000 students from all over the world inversions and pranayama. Then there was the lunch break then the afternoon session. The schedule was for the sr teachers to do a q&a but they had said yesterday Geetaji would answer the questions instead, but I thought no it's her birthday, she's 70 surely she must rest and leave it for the sr teachers but no, she gave of herself for the afternoon session answering some great questions and some not so great questions but still she answered. There is no way to express my gratitude to this woman!

 Something funny she said yesterday when talking about the hand clasp she said to make room for your big head...hahaha truth with any interpretation

 Delightful Texan and Russian Dinner at the vegetarian restaurant at the marriott

Ekaterina, Vitaly Elena and I

We are all in our Tatyana assigned seats - Vitaly, Randy, Tatyana, Ekaterina, Greg, Elena, David and I

Elena and David - David won the most desserts contest

Day6

Happy Birthday Geetaji!

A lovely day, lovely day, lovely day....

I will add a few notes they don't come close to her brilliant instruction and they are probably wrong :) especially since I can't even read my writing but to give an ide, we did all of these multiple time adding experiencing seeing but here's a taste...enjoy

Eka Pda Pavanmuktasana - Bend 1 leg, hold shin, the 2 legs are like a married couple, they must both fulfill their roles
Supta Padangusthasana I - Belt around front heel back arch where you can feel the bone move toward the socket, elbows on ground then hold near foot
Supta Padangusthasana II - Belt around front heel, 1st keep pelvis even 2nd time hold mat with  left l hand while taking foot to floor then work to level pelvis
Upavistha Konasana
Parvritta Upavistha Konasana - Upright turn hand to outer thigh other behind hold mat
Parsva  Upavistha Konasana - take hand to outer claf then outer foot, took elbow to floor on outer leg, then hand to outer calf outer foot see what do the hand placements give
Marichyasana III - Bring arm around on exhale, then lean way over allow other hip to lift, body side arm straight lean, do namaste bow down lean then set the arm and sit back
Sirsasana - thumbs - thumb cross, if fingers are short the tips of the thum can touch but she doesn't want to see thumbs straight up, you can do that when drinking after class :) Not a backbend not a forward bend it's tadasana
Sarvangasana - don't be a question mark shape, the last minute of being in the pose do your best, don't be dishonest with yourself
No savasana

Yesterday when we were at the institute we were looking at plates from LOY to purchase 8x10 for 250 Rps each, there was a book of photos of Guruji on the desk and the woman at the desk could see we were a little excited, and said oh how i miss Guruji he used to come by this desk and look at this book and say 'who is that handsome man' and i would say 'you don't know him Guruji? I know him very well'

Beautiful pranayama practice with a lot of instruction on Jalandhara Bandha

The afternoon was a talk by Birjoo and a movie filmed interview of Guruji with archival photos and video

then to an Indian rock concert, well Masters of Percussion with Zakir Hussain and they rocked

Ready to leave the hotel for the venue

The main mode of transport for concert going

No gate numbers, you enter by price of ticket

The group and some man sitting by the group

The group and whats his name

Zakir Hussain playing the tabla on the right

sitar

Wonderful we walked back in the hotel saying tatatittitittita.... :)

Day5 Halfway through the intensive

Geetaji

Geetaji

Really hard work in class this am on Parivritta Kriya with Parvritta Trikonasana and Parvritta Parsvakonasana and finding verticality in Ardha Sirsasana to Eka Pada Sirsasana, when she said Adho Mukhs Virasana she follwed it with 'Thank God',  :) took the words right out of my mouth :)

 Tatyana introduced me to a friend and she said her name was Arun and I said Arunji?? and she said You know Arunji and I said I love Arunji and she said and i said...much fun!

The Arunji delegation

The Arunji delegation

 

 

The afternoon pranayama was amazing, the air conditioner had gone nuts and it was freezing so she said she did a pranayama practice where she put a warm sweater inside us.

 Inhale like an elevator to where it takes you, pause then inhale lifting and spreading the chest. We stayed with the same cross leg for the class, we kept our seat to keep warmth. Lift the head back face up eyes closed to release any grip on the cervical spine for 2 soft smooth breaths.

 She said you would do normal inhalations/exhalations in hot environment for cooling, here we did 1 every few cycles...just amazing

 The afternoon session was too emotional to even describe, Birjoo read what a student close to the family had written which was just perfect and I would not even try to tell about it

After class Julie and I went to the institute and had an astonishing surprise, we got to watch the therapeutics class then we took pics

Picture in the stairway

Upstairs practice hall

Upstairs practice hall

Upstairs practice hall

Upstairs hall class schedule

Roof

Roof

Roof

Coming downstairs

The main practice hall

Another spectacular amazing day

Day4 of the intensive

 Amazing day of asana and pranayama, but first some pics...

 Texans, used to be Texans and shoulda been Texans

Randy, Tatyana, Greg, Cheryl, Melissa, me, David

David, Greg, Jennie, John Schumacher, Clark, Melissa, Me, Randy, Tatyana

David, Greg, Jennie, John Schumacher, Clark, Melissa, Me, Randy, Tatyana

Tatyanas new Russian friends at lunch

 I remembered something Geetaji said previously 'We read and hear words and try to find the experience, Guruji had the experience then found the words'

 She showed an amazing correction, I just think everyone will love the dvd's this is just phenomenal I can't believe we are going to have all this to watch and practice and the chanting and stories and ....
Oh yes I was going to tell you about the correction, we did urdhva prasarita ekapadasana, she called a man up who had back pain, his back was rounded and he was pinching his lower back but he was working, she had him use tall blocks and press more through his right hand and had Abhi hold a block under his lifted thigh, she worked with patience and it took time but it just all came together,  it evolved and  his back just relaxed and straightened.

 Today she said 'The way children write is correct, they slowly and with awareness form each letter of the alphabet because it is new, we just write'.

 We worked a lot on horizontal openness. Yesterday and today she has us doing sarvangasana on 4 white blankets but we fold them all in half again, really nice. In halasana walk in and lift the top abdomen off the thoracic...and many more bits of wonderfulness

  There was a short break then pranayama class. In the seated Ujjayi she said to inhale from the back ribs in and up to the sternum. We then did Bhramari with head down, then inhale with head down and exhale with head straight, then inhale and exhale with head straight.

 This is the first time that I have thought of this community as a family, but being here and them sharing their loss and speaking of all of our loss and sharing stories it really feels we are all part of something so special. 

 Lovely dinner with Rose and Julie at the veg restaurant at the hotel, great company and food.

Day 3 of the intensive

  well i guess i will start every post for 10 days with Another wonderful day!
 In the morning class Geeta started in seated poses saying in the early days always started with standing poses for the spine, in seated poses people can't lift the spine so standing. She started with seated poses this morning because she really wanted us to understand the action of the legs.
 we did the wonderful upavistha konasana baddha konasana work, in baddha konasana she said a compact disc has everything in it even though it is compact, if it was missing something the song would skip. even though this pose is compact, it must contain everything, you must bring upavistha konasana into baddha konasana.
  she gave a wonderful instruction in uttanasana, feet hip width, head up imagine the chest is your face, take your face (chest) to the mirror between your legs keeping the head up. There is a black spot on your face move the face closer to the mirror to have a closer look.
 Just amazing instruction (i guess i need another synonym for amazing) It was a 3hr class just packed with so much spectacular (hows that) instruction.
 Abhi had her daughter in the hall today.

 

In the afternoon session Sunita led us in the chant of the first 2 padas of the Yoga Sutras. She said recitationis external from the brain while chanting is internal from the heart, this is from within. It was wonderful. Swati then talked about yoginis in art.

After the event Tatyana Julie and I went to Parvati Hill to see the view and temples. It is the second highest point in Pune.

Tatyana is popular with the goats especially after getting flowers for the temple

School girls on their way home

resting

Tatyana and Julie

Beautiful view

Sunset

This priest helped us so much giving us wonderful information about the temples

 

Day2 of the Intensive

An amazing day - Geetaji is an incredible teacher, guess that isn't a news flash but it's rather stunning to be here.

Today she started right into asana, standing poses. She had people on stage to show corrections, from the stage she would say gray tshirt on the back row of the first section come here, she had seen their issue from the stage, this was really incredible.  the first woman was called when we were all in upavistha konasana, in tadasana she showed how her right buttocks was round but her left buttocks was tight, she made her work to move the round buttocks in and make more balanced, she had her walking with her feet at the edge of the mat, walking back and forth as we watched how this imbalance improved, wow. She chanted Sahana Vavatu for her to see not to be fearful on stage we were all here to support each other.
After she corrected her Geeta asked what did you feel and the student said I feel great, geetaji said 'i dont care about great, i can make everyone in this room feel great, what did you feel?'



She told a story at the end of class that was so powerful, she asked if everyone was ok with her doing these demos and correcting because it was hard for her to see and ignore, then she said Guruji had stopped practicing and 10 days before he passed he was sitting on the balcony for fresh air, from the balcony he could see the class and someone near the window was doing wrong. Geeta said we will go and let them know but he had to correct this he called 'Abhi, Abhi' and she came to the window and he told her. it was funny but suddenly just so emotional too.

 We then went to see the Aga Khan Palace - Mahatma Ghandi , his wife Kasturba Gandhi,  and his secretary  Mahadev Desai were interned in the palace from 9 August 1942 to 6 May 1944, his wife and secretary died here. The grounds are beautiful.

Aga Khan Palace

Aga Khan Palace

Aga Khan Palace - Julie 

Aga Khan Palace - finally

Aga Khan Palace

Aga Khan Palace

Aga Khan Palace - getting closer

Then we got back for the afternoon session. Abhi talked about the commitment of attending Iyengar classes. She told a wonderful story of Guruji would tell her do an asana anytime anywhere, when she had just learned sirsasana they went on a picnic by a waterfall and he said Abhi do sirsasana at the base of the waterfall and have your head right in the base, she was scared and said no but soon did it and she said it was wonderful with the gentle flow of water on the back of her head. She said Guruji said 'we seek freedom but we cling to bondage'.
 One day tthey were working in parsva sarvangasana and Raya told Guruji 'my legs are too long' and Guruji replied 'yes make them short'
  Our journey is from the known to the unknown, the known has limits, don't put boundaries on your practice'. Go through the process of your commitment, set aside your previous experiences and do it new, 'habit is a disease'.
 The afternoon ended with a comic interlude. A doctor who is kind and obviously loved Guruji very much but not so much a presenter. This doctor cared for Guruji. So he had Patricia and Manouso on stage and would tell them to go in a pose and then he would start talking and you weren't sure what the purpose of them doing the pose in the background was for. So they did trikonasana, parsvakonasana, parvritta parsvakonasana (at this point i was laughing so hard it was really fun,) vira III, they would be in a pose and he would say something like see the muscles extend uh yep he's right about that but ... sirsasana (fairly long sirsasana while he talked about how great sirsasana was for you) , uttanasana now this was actually interesting he measured Patricia's spine in tadasana 26" then measured in Uttanasana 31" and he said so thinking the point is to get your head to your legs is ridicuous. It was lovely seeing their demos it was just so unrelated to what he was talking about that it became rather humorous to me.

Sirsasana is good

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